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Monthly Archives: October 2017
Test Your Intuition 33: The Great Free Will Poll
Free will is defined (following Wikipedea) as the ability of humans to choose between different possible courses of action unimpeded. But you may take your favorite definition of free will. Philosophers (and others) have debated the definition of “free will” and the question if humans … Continue reading
Must-read book by Avi Wigderson
Originally posted on Windows On Theory:
Avi Wigderson is one of the most prolific and creative theoretical computer scientists (in fact, he is one of the most prolific and creative scientists, period). Over the last several years, Avi had worked…
High Dimensional Combinatorics at the IIAS – Program Starts this Week; My course on Helly-type theorems; A workshop in Sde Boker
The academic year starts today. As usual it is very hectic and it is wonderful to see the ever younger and younger students. Being a TelAvivian in residence in the last few years, I plan this year to split my … Continue reading
Posted in Combinatorics, Computer Science and Optimization, Geometry, Updates
Tagged Alex Lubotzky, Nati Linial, Tali Kaufman
4 Comments
Stan Wagon, TYI 32: Ladies and Gentlemen: The Answer
TYI 32, kindly offered by Stan Wagon asked A round cake has icing on the top but not the bottom. Cut out a piece in the usual shape (a sector of a circle with vertex at the center), remove it, … Continue reading
Posted in Combinatorics, Geometry, Test your intuition
Tagged Stan Wagon, Test your intuition
8 Comments
Ladies and Gentlemen, Stan Wagon: TYI 32 – A Cake Problem.
The following post was kindly contributed by Stan Wagon. Stan (Wikipedea) is famous for his books, papers, snow-sculptures, and square-wheels bicycles (see picture below) ! A round cake has icing on the top but not the bottom. Cut out a … Continue reading
Posted in Combinatorics, Guest blogger, Test your intuition
Tagged Guest blogger, Stan Wagon, Test your intuition
8 Comments
If Quantum Computers are not Possible Why are Classical Computers Possible?
As most of my readers know, I regard quantum computing as unrealistic. You can read more about it in my Notices AMS paper and its extended version (see also this post) and in the discussion of Puzzle 4 from my … Continue reading
Posted in Computer Science and Optimization, Physics, Quantum
Tagged Guy Kindler, Quantum computers
8 Comments
Sergiu Hart: Two-Vote or not to Vote
Sergiu Hart raises a very interesting idea regarding elections. Consider the Brexit referendum. Sergiu proposes to have two rounds two weeks apart. Every voter can vote in each, and the votes of both rounds add up! The outcomes of … Continue reading
A toast to Alistair: Two Minutes on Two Great Professional Surprises
Alistair and the Simons Institure friendly and helpful staff Luca Trevisan invited me to give a 3-minute (vidotaped or live) toast for Alistair Sinclair to celebrate that Alistair much deservedly received the SIGACT service award and to mourn that he also … Continue reading
TYI 31 – Rados Radoicic’s Rope Problem
Ropemaker (source) Rados Radoicic wrote me: “Several years back, I heard the following puzzle that turns out to be rather ‘classical’: “There are N ropes in a bag. In each step, two rope ends are picked uniformly at random, tied … Continue reading
Posted in Combinatorics, Probability, Test your intuition
Tagged Rados Radoicic, Test your intuition
7 Comments
Eran Nevo: g-conjecture part 4, Generalizations and Special Cases
This is the fourth in a series of posts by Eran Nevo on the g-conjecture. Eran’s first post was devoted to the combinatorics of the g-conjecture and was followed by a further post by me on the origin of the g-conjecture. Eran’s second post was about … Continue reading
Posted in Combinatorics, Convex polytopes, Guest blogger, Open problems
Tagged Eran Nevo, g-conjecture
2 Comments
Combinatorics and more 