Math
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Math
Scheduling Random Walks
Juggling competing demands in a network of feverishly calculating computers drawing on the same memory resources is like trying to avert collisions among blindfolded, randomly zigzagging ice skaters. Example of a graph with one token poised to take a random walk. In this example of dependent percolation, a fickle demon would win (so far), but […]
- Math
Quirks of video poker
Even with perfect play over a long time, unfavorable odds and limits on how much a gambler may win per machine make playing video poker into a losing game.
- Math
Reassessing an ancient artifact
The famous Mesopotamian clay tablet known as Plimpton 322 represents an ordered list of worked examples that a teacher would use to prepare a sequence of closely related questions about squares and reciprocals for student exercises.
- Math
Scheduled random walks skirt collisions
Researchers in theoretical computer science have made progress in settling the question of whether a clairvoyant scheduler can regulate the timing of moves by random walkers on a grid to keep them from ever colliding.
- Math
Folding Maps
Anyone trying to refold an opened road map is wrestling with the same sort of challenges confronted by origami designers and sheet metal benders. The problem of returning a creased sheet to its neatly folded state gets tougher when you’re not sure if the sheet can be folded into a flat packet and when you’re […]
- Math
Folding Maps
Anyone trying to refold an opened road map is wrestling with the same sort of challenges confronted by origami designers and sheet metal benders. The problem of returning a creased sheet to its neatly folded state gets tougher when you’re not sure if the sheet can be folded into a flat packet and when you’re […]
