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This is a blog where a professor from Northeastern University's Math department posts mathematical comments on the television show "Numb3rs". To comment, write to bridger@neu.edu.
Unique visitors since 6/14/2005:
April 28, 2005
At the end of last week's episode Charlie tries to convince some members of the gang that hijacked the radioactive Cesium to testify against the others, including the leader. He lectures them on what he describes as "The Prisoner's Dilemma." What is this?
The Prisoner's Dilemma (PD) refers, technically, to a kind of "game" devised to test what are called Nash equilibrium points... continued »
April 25, 2005
What happens when there is just one sniper? Well, according to expert opinion, the sniper needs a certain fixed number of days to select and prepare his location. Say this is roughly 5 days. On the sixth day he strikes. So, suppose he shoots on a Monday. Five days of planning elapse, so the next attack is on the following Sunday. After another 5 days, the next attack is on a Saturday, then a Friday, etc: every 6 days... continued »
April 4, 2005
I was thinking about the idea of someone taking small amounts of money from many different investment accounts. Could this actually happen?
Well, someone once did transfer "roundoff pennies" in this way: I think it was in a bank. The person was a programer, and after each transaction, rounded down. Thus, if a person was owed $3450.368, then instead of getting $3450.37, only $3450.36 was paid. The programer diverted the extra penny into his private account... continued »
April 2, 2005
This week's episode (April 1) had some interesting mathematics-related topics. Today's blog will discuss:
1. Poker playing with mathematicians
2. Pyramid schemes and paper folding
3. Finger prints
4. Schrodinger's cat.
Years ago I used to play in a weekly Friday night, low stakes poker game, with 5 or 6 other mathematicians... continued »