Category Archives: Probability

Q: How do I find the love of my life? (a Mathematician’s perspective)

Posted on March 15, 2011 by The Mathematician

Mathematician: The Physicist and I were once asked “how do I find the love of my life?”. Never ones to shy away from applying math to love (or anything else), the Physicist gave his take on this question (noting the … Continue reading →

Posted in -- By the Mathematician, Biology, Equations, Philosophical, Probability | 24 Comments

Q: How can quantum computers break encryption?

Posted on February 21, 2011 by The Physicist

Physicist: What follows is the famous Shor algorithm, which can break any RSA encryption key. The problem: RSA, the most common form of public key encryption, is based on the fact that large numbers are hard to factor.  Without going … Continue reading →

Posted in -- By the Physicist, Computer Science, Equations, Math, Number Theory, Physics, Probability, Quantum Theory | 19 Comments

Q: What is the probability that two randomly chosen people will have been born on the same day?

Posted on October 31, 2010 by The Physicist

Physicist: 0.0035% or about 1 in 28,500. The most recent, complete information I could find is the 2000 American census.  There they have the number of people of a particular age sorted into five year blocks, so I assumed a … Continue reading →

Posted in -- By the Physicist, Probability | 4 Comments

Q: Will we ever overcome the Heisenberg uncertainty principle?

Posted on August 1, 2010 by The Physicist

Physicist: Nopers! The Heisenberg uncertainty principle, while normally presented in physics circles, is actually a mathematical absolute.  So overcoming the uncertainty principle is exactly as hard as overcoming that whole “1+1=2” thing. The uncertainty principle (the “position/momentum uncertainty principle”) is … Continue reading →

Posted in -- By the Physicist, Equations, Math, Physics, Probability, Quantum Theory | 24 Comments

Q: What’s the chance of getting a run of K or more successes (heads) in a row in N Bernoulli trials (coin flips)? Why use approximations when the exact answer is known?

Posted on July 24, 2010 by The Physicist

The original question was: Recently I’ve come across a task to calculate the probability that a run of at least K successes occurs in a series of N (K≤N) Bernoulli trials (weighted coin flips), i.e. “what’s the probability that in … Continue reading →

Posted in -- By the Mathematician, -- By the Physicist, Combinatorics, Equations, Math, Probability | 54 Comments

Q: How is it that Bell’s Theorem proves that there are no “hidden variables” in quantum mechanics? How do we know that God really does play dice with the universe?

Posted on June 22, 2010 by The Physicist

Physicist: Bell’s theorem, and its philosophical fallout, is one of the most profound discoveries since relativity. Bell’s theorem states (among other things) that the universe is fundamentally unpredictable, and that quantum mechanical things (for example: everything) are not actually in … Continue reading →

Posted in -- By the Physicist, Philosophical, Physics, Probability, Quantum Theory | 25 Comments