Tag Archives: Test your intuition

Test your intuition 52: Can you predict the ratios of ones?

Here is a problem I heard from Zachary Chase and Yuval Peres. Bob choses a sequences of zeroes and ones of length . The bits are presented to Alice one by one. Alice’s task is to choose, at a certain … Continue reading

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Test Your intuition 51

Suppose that and are two compact convex sets in space. Suppose that contains . Now consider two quantities is the average volume of a simplex forms by four points in drawn uniformly at random. is the average volume of a … Continue reading

Posted in Convexity, Geometry, Probability, Test your intuition | Tagged | 12 Comments

Answer to Test Your Intuition 50: Detecting a Deviator

Two weeks ago we asked: Ruth and Ron start together at the origin and take a walk on the integers. Every day they make a move. They take turns in flipping a coin and they move together right or left … Continue reading

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Test Your Intuition 50. Two-Player Random Walk; Can You Detect Who Did Not Follow the Rules?

Ruth and Ron start together at the origin and take a walk on the integers. Every day they make a move. They take turns in flipping a coin and they move together right or left according to the outcome. Their … Continue reading

Posted in Probability, Test your intuition | Tagged , | 13 Comments

Ehud Friedgut: How many cubes of 2×2×2 fit into a box of size 8×4×3? (TYI 49)

This blog post is kindly written by Ehud Friedgut. My daughter, Shiri, who’s in seventh grade, had the following question in a math exam: How many cubes of 2×2×2 fit into a box of size 8×4×3? Shiri divided the volumes, … Continue reading

Posted in Geometry, Riddles, Test your intuition | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

To cheer you up in difficult times 35 combined with Test Your Intuition 48: Alef’s corner – Jazz and Math

Test your intuition: What is the true title of this drawing?

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Test your intuition 47: AGC-GTC-TGC-GTC-TGC-GAC-GATC-? what comes next in the sequence?

Before getting to the main topic of this post, first, Happy New Year 2022 and Merry Christmas to all readers, and second, a quick update: A community blog to discuss open problems in algebraic combinatorics was created. Everybody is invited … Continue reading

Posted in Algebra, Combinatorics, Geometry, Test your intuition | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Test Your Intuition (46): What is the Reason for Maine’s Huge Influence?

Very quick updates: Corona: Israel is struggling with the pandemic with some successes,  some failures, and much debate. Peace: We have peace agreements now with several Arab countries, most recently with Sudan. This is quite stunning. Internal politics: As divided … Continue reading

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Cheerful Test Your Intuition (#45): Survey About Sisters and Brothers

You survey many many school children and ask each one: Do you have more brothers than sisters? or more sisters than brothers? or the same number? Then you separate the boys’s answers from the girls’s answers Which of the following … Continue reading

Posted in Combinatorics, Probability, Riddles, Statistics, Test your intuition | Tagged | 7 Comments

TYI44: “What Then, To Raise an Old Question, is Mathematics?”

“The argument is carried out not in mathematical symbols but in ordinary English, there is no obscure or technical terms. Knowledge of calculus is not presupposed. In fact, one hardly need to know how to count. Yet any mathematician will … Continue reading

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