Clik here to view.
The Bare Bones of Probability
How likely is it that an event will happen? Probabilities attempt to answer this question by assigning numbers to the likelihood of events. A probability is always a number between 0 and 1. The closer...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Different Number Scales
When you encounter a number, what sort of numerical information is it giving you? Is the number functioning merely as a label? Or is it counting how many? Does it denote a magnitude or merely indicate...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Savvy Advice for Unsavvy Gamblers
Risk is an unavoidable feature of life, so in a sense all of us are all the time gambling. For instance, we are placing a bet when we invest money in a new business venture. Many business ventures...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Most Interesting Number
Are all numbers interesting? Yes. And we can prove it using a “proof by contradiction.” Assume there are positive numbers that are not interesting. Therefore, there is a smallest number that is not...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Bare Bones of Bayes’ Theorem
Thomas Bayes died over 200 years ago, but his legacy is still with us and provides some very useful insights into probability. What is his legacy? It is a probability formula that tells us how to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Lesson of the Monty Hall Problem
On the television game show Let’s Make a Deal, Monty Hall, the show’s best known host, used to present contestants with the following situation: the contestant would be presented with three doors...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Potential Infinity vs. Actual Infinity
What is infinity and does it even exist? In our everyday experience, we find only finite things. A basket of eggs contains only a fixed number of eggs and no more. Our bodies are composed of particles...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Mathematics of Hell
(Or Jonathan Edwards Meets Leonhard Euler) Visions of hell abound, not just in Christian literature but also in mythology. The Greeks, for instance, had Sisyphus, who was condemned to an eternity of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Goedel’s Theorem for Dummies
When people refer to “Goedel’s Theorem” (singular, not plural), they mean the incompleteness theorem that he proved and published in 1931. Kurt Goedel, the Austrian mathematician, actually proved...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Amazing History of Information Storage: How Small Has Become Beautiful
People have been storing information since the stone ages, ever since they’ve been writing or putting art on tablets and walls. With the invention of paper and ink, the “density of information”...
View Article
