Christmas 2015: Advent calendar of research
In the run up to Christmas I have been posting each day that is (loosely) related to Research and Knowledge Exchange, and is also Christmas related. I thought it worthwhile just summarsing them here so that you can take a look at them from from one easily accessible place. Deck the halls with research stories […]
The Monty Hall Problem
You’re on a game show and the host asks you to pick one of three doors. Behind one of them is the star prize: a sports car. Behind the other two are goats. Once you have made your pick, the show host opens one of the other doors – always revealing a goat. The host […]
What is your Erdös Number?
Paul Erdös (1913-1996) is one of the most prolific mathmeticians. He wrote over 1500 papers in his lifetime and collaborated with over 500 people. As a tribute, his friends created the Erdös number, which is a tongue in cheek way of asking how well you are associated with the top mathematicians. Erdös himself has an […]
A Day in the Life of Pi
A day in the life of Pi By Graham Kendall, University of Nottingham Most people have heard of the mathematical constant Pi (?), and will know that it’s roughly 3.14. Taking inspiration from these three digits, March 14 (3/14 in the US date format) is heralded as international Pi Day, first marked by US physicist […]
Conjuring Trick: Revealed
Thank you for all the feedback to my last blog, both personally and through facebook. The answer is that information is communicated via the four remaining cards. It is not obvious how it is done but take a look at the article by Colm Mulcahy, which explains all. If you are interested in these sort […]
Conjuring Trick
I recently came across another blog (I’ll point you to that blog at a later date), which has a number of puzzles on it. One, in particular caught my eye (probably because of a long time fascination with conjuring). The trick works as follows. A volunteer chooses five cards from a normal pack of cards. […]