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Games and Game Theory

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The case for governing by lottery - Ideas. Cracking the Scratch Lottery Code. Mohan Srivastava, a geological statistician living in Toronto, was working in his office in June 2003, waiting for some files to download onto his computer, when he discovered a couple of old lottery tickets buried under some paper on his desk.

Cracking the Scratch Lottery Code

The tickets were cheap scratchers—a gag gift from his squash partner—and Srivastava found himself wondering if any of them were winners. He fished a coin out of a drawer and began scratching off the latex coating. “The first was a loser, and I felt pretty smug,” Srivastava says. “I thought, ‘This is exactly why I never play these dumb games.'” The second ticket was a tic-tac-toe game. Delighted, he decided to take a lunchtime walk to the gas station to cash in his ticket. Posts - I am a statistician and I buy lottery tickets. When my friends hear me say that I’m buying a lottery ticket for a big draw I often get the comment, “but aren’t you a statistician?”.

Posts - I am a statistician and I buy lottery tickets

The implication is that only people who are ignorant of probability would play the lottery. I’ve also heard the belief that the lottery is a tax on poor people. I have a different view, that buying lottery tickets is perfectly rational for me. There are a number of different lotteries here in Melbourne, Australia, but lets consider the draw for this Tuesday, the “Super 7’s Oz Lotto”. This game draws seven balls from 45, and the big “first division” prize is for getting all seven correct. The odds against winning the big prize are 45,379,619:1.1 That sounds like a long shot by any measure, and this is the number that people usually quote when they tell you how crazy you are. The standard argument of people who think that lotto is for suckers is based on expected return. Expected return per line = $70,000,000 / 45,379,620 = $1.54 P(X) = NCX * pX * (1-p)N-X.

Lessness: Randomness, Consciousness and Meaning. Elizabeth Drew and Mads Haahr This paper was presented at the 4th International CAiiA-STAR Research Conference ‘Consciousness Reframed’ in Perth, Australia, 1-4 August 2002.

Lessness: Randomness, Consciousness and Meaning

A PDF version is also available. The tool described in the paper is still online but has been renamed Possible Lessnesses. Summary. On "iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma Contains Strategies That Dominate Any Evolutionary Opponent"  ON "ITERATED PRISONER’S DILEMMA CONTAINS STRATEGIES THAT DOMINATE ANY EVOLUTIONARY OPPONENT" by William H.

On "iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma Contains Strategies That Dominate Any Evolutionary Opponent" 

Press and Freeman J. Risk intelligence: how gamblers and weather forecasters assess probabilities. iStockphoto.

Risk intelligence: how gamblers and weather forecasters assess probabilities

Humans are useless at assessing probabilities. But against the odds, Dylan Evans has tracked down the handful of people who rate as geniuses on the intelligence scale he calls risk quotient. Alison George asked him what they can teach us—and if we can boost our own scores Most people probably haven't heard of risk intelligence. Probabilities in the Game of Monopoly® Probabilities in the Game of Monopoly® Table of Contents I recently saw an article in Scientific American (the April 1996 issue with additional information in the August 1996 and April 1997 issues) that discussed the probabilities of landing on the various squares in the game of Monopoly®.

Probabilities in the Game of Monopoly®

They used a simplified model of the game without considering the effects of the Chance and Community Chest cards or of the various ways of being sent to jail. Probability of ending your turn on any space on a Monopoly board [OC] Monopoly Is Theft. The players at Table 25 fought first over the choice of pawns.

Monopoly Is Theft

Doug Herold, a forty-four-year-old real estate appraiser, settled on the car. How To Use Math To Dominate At Monopoly. Winning The Price Is Right: Strategies for Contestants’ Row, Plinko, and the Showcase Showdown. Photo by Mark Davis/Getty Images.

Winning The Price Is Right: Strategies for Contestants’ Row, Plinko, and the Showcase Showdown.

Charlie Brown and game theory. I grew up watching Charlie Brown and the many Peanuts holiday cartoon specials.

Charlie Brown and game theory

At holiday time I am always reminded of the Great Pumpkin, Snoopy’s antics, and the cheesy phone conversations. But most of all I am reminded of Charlie Brown and game theory. The Crummey trust and game theory: understanding the grim trigger strategy. My friend never broke curfew during high school.

The Crummey trust and game theory: understanding the grim trigger strategy

The consequences were too dire. His parents had threatened to cut off his allowance and scale back on helping him pay for college. How to Game a Grading Curve. Students in three of Professor Peter Fröhlich‘s computer programming classes at Johns Hopkins University recently devised a method to game their final grades. Frolich grades exams on a curve — the highest grade in the class, whatever it may be, becomes 100 percent, and “everybody else gets a percentage relative to it.” Game Theory is Useful, Except When it is Not. Nobel prize laureate John Forbes Nash, mathemetician and game theorist, in May, 2005.

(China Photos/Getty Images) The study of strategic interactions is gaining popularity across disciplines, but that does not mean its relevance is universal. Note: This article was originally published on July 8, 2013.