probability

QWERTY-nomics, how did QWERTY came to be?

QWERTY has become the dominant keyboard standard, used by billions of people every day. The basic QWERTY form was developed in 1873 and was based around four rows with eleven characters in each row.

# 131 Puzzle from the New Scientist

Solution to #131 “The Paradise Club” puzzle from the New Scientist. This week (No 3352 - 18 September 2021) the New Scientist posted the following puzzle: Down at The Paradise Club, Gus and Bart take it in turns to roll a pair of dice.

Puzzle from the New Scientist

Attempt to solve #115 “A random robot” puzzle from the New Scientist. This week (No 3336 - 29 May 2021) the New Scientist published the following puzzle: Roman the test robot is being given one final roam before being consigned to the scrapheap where he can rust in peace.

Approximating Binomial with Poisson

It is usually taught in statistics classes that Binomial probabilities can be approximated by Poisson probabilities, which are generally easier to calculate. This approximation is valid “when \(n\) is large and \(np\) is small,” and rules of thumb are sometimes given.

Another solution to the 'The Hardest Logic Puzzle Ever' using probability

I present a solution to a modification of the “hardest logic puzzle ever” using probability theory. Background “The hardest logic puzzle” was originally presented by Boolos (1996) and since then it has been amended several times in order to make it harder (see Rabern and Rabern 2008; Novozhilov 2012).