math and statistics puzzles
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Generating Irrational Probabilities
Over at Jan Nordgreen’s excellent Thnik Again! blog, frequent commenter Richard Sabey posed the question “I want to throw a fair coin and use the result to make some decision with probability 1/sqrt(2). How?” This was initially a stumper; not a surprise since Richard is a pretty formidable mathematician who has more number theory in Read more
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Love the message, hate the graphic
Meg McLain tells a great story about the relative risk of being killed by terrorists in the US. Unfortunately, she comes up with this baffling graphic which appears to use the sort of number scales beloved of President Obama’s budget speechwriters: Sure, there’s a scale problem, when the multipliers range from 6 to 17,600, but Read more
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The Dutch Book, made simple
Briggsy gives a dead-simple explanation for spotting and profiting from a Dutch Book set of odds. Even an undergrad can do it! Read more
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A fair 3-way choice using coin tosses
I’d like to make a fair and random choice among 3 alternatives, but the only randomizing device I have available is a coin to toss. Worse yet, I suspect the coin may be biased. What to do? Read more
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If you gamble, know when to stop
It’s explained in gory detail here. Tip from Thnik Again! Read more
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Optimal Grilling
The Rapid Steak Algorithm. OK, so it’s really an introductory article about operations research, which we at UTSA, in our infinite wisdom, call management science, to keep the engineers from getting their grubby paws on it. Writer Sanjay Saigal (is that some kind of Houston name?) promises more of this good stuff. Tip from the Read more
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Not quite ready for prime time
This sounds like a great innovation, using Raman spectroscopy to detect melanoma. But let’s look a little deeper at the preliminary results. First, the developers claim that in 274 known cases of melanoma, the device detected all 274 of them, which gives and estimated test sensitivity of 100%, which is patent bullshit; nothing in this Read more
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Thnik again! again
Jan Nordgreen’s Thnik Again! blog is back on the air. Get your Thinking Caps ready. Read more
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Get logical!
Everything you wanted to know about logical fallacies in one handy chart. Tip from the Corner. Read more
The Random Texan 