small games about big math

CURRENTLY JUST A TEST. WILL MAKE MORE SENSE ONCE I ADD THE SUBSTACK ARTICLES AND PAPERS I AM WORKING ON TRUST.

from my research
🎨

can you color it?

Avoid making patterns. Ramsey theory guarantees you will fail, and tells you exactly when.

ramsey theory

beat the solver

Color a graph faster than a SAT solver. It does not feel pressure. You will.

P vs NP
🔭

how big is this number?

A guided tour from 6 to Graham's number, through a 2 petabyte proof.

combinatorics
🎯

aim lab: cheater edition

What aimbots look like to a statistician. Crank the concentration dial and see.

von mises-fisher
📌

fixed point roulette

Define a continuous map with no fixed point. Brouwer says you can't. Try anyway.

topology
🚶

random walk escape

A drunk man always finds his way home. A drunk bird may not. Polya's recurrence theorem, live.

random walks
from my writing
💰

economy roulette

Tactical shooter economy as a Markov chain. Buy smart or lose slow, then face the optimal policy.

markov chains

when's the goal?

Guess when goals happen. Your gut is wrong about the last ten minutes.

empirical distributions
🏏

survive the innings

Batting as survival analysis. Every ball is a coin flip that hates you.

kaplan-meier
for my students
🚪

the monty hall machine

Play it once, get fooled. Play it a thousand times, get schooled.

probability
🐦

the pigeonhole game

N+1 pigeons, N holes. Good luck.

pigeonhole principle
🍰

cut the cake

Divide a cake so nobody wants to trade. Envy-free is PPAD-complete. You are the algorithm.

fair division
🗳

who wins?

Same votes, three methods, three different winners. Arrow says there is no fix.

voting theory
🤝

the cooperation game

Betray or cooperate for 200 rounds. The nicest strategy wins, and it is not even close.

game theory