Related papers: Variations on the two-child problem
Consider the problem of multinomial estimation. You are given an alphabet of k distinct symbols and are told that the i-th symbol occurred exactly n_i times in the past. On the basis of this information alone, you must now estimate the…
Consider a growing system of random walks on the 3,2-alternating tree, where generations of nodes alternate between having two and three children. Any time a particle lands on a node which has not been visited previously, a new particle is…
There is no trivial mathematics, there are only trivial mathematicians! A mathematician is trivial if he or she believes that there exists trivial mathematics. Being a non-trivial mathematician myself, I will describe ten different proofs…
The prime number problem falls within the realm of number theory, specifically elementary number theory. Current research approaches have unnecessarily complicated this matter. In contrast to more advanced mathematical tools, the methods of…
A modified totient function ($\phi_2$) is seen to play a significant role in the study of the twin prime distribution. The function is defined as $\phi_2(n):=\#\{a\le n ~\vert ~\textrm{$a(a+2)$ is coprime to $n$}\}$ and is shown here to…
Math is widely considered as a powerful tool and its strong appeal depends on the high level of abstraction it allows in modelling a huge number of heterogeneous phenomena and problems, spanning from the static of buildings to the flight of…
The paper studies pricing of insurance products focusing on the pricing of annuities under uncertainty. This pricing problem is crucial for financial decision making and was studied intensively, however, many open questions still remain. In…
The "paradox" arises in the Two Envelopes Paradox from the incorrect formulation of the argument. The infomation given is misused and therefore the results are incorrect for the question asked. The key is to be clear on what question we are…
We create a simple test for distinguishing between sets of primes and random numbers using just the sum-of-digits function. We find that the sum-of-the-digits of prime numbers does not have an equal probability of being odd or even. The…
Simpson's Paradox is a well-known phenomenon in statistical science, where the relationship between the response variable $X$ and a certain explanatory factor of interest $A$ reverses when an additional factor $B_1$ is considered. This…
The Union-Closed Sets Conjecture, also known as Frankl's conjecture, asks whether, for any union-closed set family $\mathcal{F}$ with $m$ sets, there is an element that lies in at least $\frac{1}{2}\cdot m$ sets in $\mathcal{F}$. In 2022,…
Children can take many paths to become scientists. But they undoubtedly include the following steps Play, play and play; Observe; Ask (themselves). In this paper I will talk about some of my experiences teaching girls and boys, teenagers…
Goldbach conjecture is one of the most famous open mathematical problems. It states that every even number, bigger than two, can be presented as a sum of 2 prime numbers. % In this work we present a deep learning based model that predicts…
Among three natural numbers there is always one which is larger than or equal to the Nim sum of the remaining two numbers. This amazing fact has many applications.
We consider a mathematical model for the classical Sudoku puzzle, which we call the primal problem and introduce a corresponding dual problem. Both problems are constraint satisfaction models and a duality relation between them is proved.…
Let $\alpha(n)$ denote the number of perfect square permutations in the symmetric group $S_n$. The conjecture $\alpha(2n+1) = (2n+1) \alpha(2n)$, provided by Stanley[4], was proved by Blum[1] using a generating function. This paper presents…
The article attempts to demonstrate the rich history of one truly remarkable problem situated at the confluence of probability theory and theory of numbers - finding the probability of co-primality of two randomly selected natural numbers.…
We study pairs of consecutive odd numbers through a straightforward indexing. We focus in particular on twin primes and their distribution. With a counting argument, we calculate the limit of an alternating sum that is equal to 1 which…
We examine the problem of family size statistics (the number of individuals carrying the same surname, or the same DNA sequence) in a given size subsample of an exponentially growing population. We approach the problem from two directions.…
We develop algorithms, implemented in Maple, that study the number of vertices with a particular number of children in a random ordered tree where all vertices must have a number of children in some finite set. By calculating the mixed…