February 24, 2013
by Alex
6 Comments
Consider two problems you’ve probably heard before: Given a five-gallon bucket and a three-gallon bucket, measure exactly four gallons of water. Given a five-minute hourglass and a three-minute hourglass, measure exactly seven minutes. These problems are clearly related, but how? … Continue reading
July 28, 2012
by Alex
2 Comments
[latexpage] While I’m at it, I might as well write up the problem that inspired the last post. Here it is: Flip a coin until you get consecutive heads, then stop. Let X represent the number of flips it took. … Continue reading
July 28, 2012
by Alex
4 Comments
[latexpage] I stumbled across a result yesterday that I thought was really cool. I went to check the googles to find out if it was a very well-known result, but I couldn’t find it proved anywhere, so I thought I’d … Continue reading
January 13, 2012
by Alex
7 Comments
I don’t know about you, but growing up I always played rock-paper-scissors with just three weapons … you know, the three in the title. But my wife is French, and as Wikipedia explains: Similarly, the French game “pierre, papier, ciseaux, … Continue reading
November 29, 2011
by Alex
2 Comments
The NFL has an overtime problem, or so everyone seems to think. Every year we get long screeds from columnists lamenting the unfairness of sudden death overtime. Why? Some people think it’s unfair that one team can get the ball … Continue reading
November 10, 2011
by Alex
3 Comments
When I was sick recently, my boss e-mailed me a math problem he said I might try to solve to pass the time. Now, I had thought that this was a problem he had read somewhere, but no: this is … Continue reading