Related papers: Variations on the two-child problem
We consider the following cake cutting game: Alice chooses a set P of n points in the square (cake) [0,1]^2, where (0,0) is in P; Bob cuts out n axis-parallel rectangles with disjoint interiors, each of them having a point of P as the lower…
The well-known Simpson's Paradox, or Yule-Simpson Effect, in statistics is often illustrated by the following thought experiment: A drug may be found in a trial to increase the survival rate for both men and women, but decrease the rate for…
This paper presents a plausible reasoning system to illustrate some broad issues in knowledge representation: dualities between different reasoning forms, the difficulty of unifying complementary reasoning styles, and the approximate nature…
Conway and Doyle have claimed to be able to divide by three. We attempt to replicate their achievement and fail. In the process, we get tangled up in some shoes and socks and forget how to multiply.
In the marriage problem, a variant of the bi-parted matching problem, each member has a `wish-list' expressing his/her preference for all possible partners; this list consists of random, positive real numbers drawn from a certain…
We derive exact expressions for the probabilities that partly random hyperplanes separate two Euclidean balls. The probability that a fully random hyperplane separates two balls turns out to be significantly smaller than the corresponding…
We consider a simple streaming game between two players Alice and Bob, which we call the mirror game. In this game, Alice and Bob take turns saying numbers belonging to the set $\{1, 2, \dots,2N\}$. A player loses if they repeat a number…
Given a sequence of $N$ positive real numbers $\{a_1,a_2,..., a_N \}$, the number partitioning problem consists of partitioning them into two sets such that the absolute value of the difference of the sums of $a_j$ over the two sets is…
Winning probabilities of The Hat Game (Ebert's Hat Problem) with three players and three colors are only known in the symmetric case: all probabilities of the colors are equal. This paper solves the asymmetric case: probabilities may be…
Sumplete is a logic puzzle famous for being developed by ChatGPT. The puzzle consists of a rectangular grid, with each cell containing a number. The player has to cross out some numbers such that the sum of uncrossed numbers in each row and…
A Subtraction-Division game is a two player combinatorial game with three parameters: a set S, a set D, and a number n. The game starts at n, and is a race to say the number 1. Each player, on their turn, can either move the total to n-s…
The derivation of the quantum retrodictive probability formula involves an error, an ambiguity. The end result is correct because this error appears twice, in such a way as to cancel itself. In addition, however, the usual expression for…
The Sleeping Beauty problem is a probability riddle with no definite solution for more than two decades and its solution is of great interest in many fields of knowledge. There are two main competing solutions to the problem: the halfer…
I think we can agree that dealing with uncertainty is not easy. Probability is the main tool for dealing with uncertainty, and we know there are many probability-related puzzles and paradoxes. Here I describe a rather idiosyncratic…
In statistical mechanics, the generally called Stirling approximation is actually an approximation of Stirling's formula. In this article, it is shown that the term that is dropped is in fact the one that takes fluctuations into account.…
We say a natural number~$n$ is abundant if $\sigma(n)>2n$, where $\sigma(n)$ denotes the sum of the divisors of~$n$. The aliquot parts of~$n$ are those divisors less than~$n$, and we say that an abundant number~$n$ is pseudoperfect if there…
In this paper, we present a possible theoretical explanation for benford's law. We develop a recursive relation between the probabilities, using simple intuitive ideas. We first use numerical solutions of this recursion and verify that the…
The Plurality problem - introduced by Aigner \cite{A2004} - has many variants. In this article we deal with the following version: suppose we are given $n$ balls, each of them colored by one of three colors. A \textit{plurality ball} is one…
This paper is one of a series in which elementary-education practice is analyzed by comparison with the history of mathematics, mathematical structure, modern practice, and (occasionally) cognitive neuroscience. The primary concerns are:…
The work presented in this article suggests a solution to the two sample problem. Keywords: Two sample problem, Welch-Aspin solution, Fisher-Behrens problem, nuisance parameter, similarity, the Linnik phenomenon.