For Numberphile, Simon Anthony explains the Phistomephel Ring. The shape always contains the same numbers as the corners do. Math magic!
Tags: math, Numberphile, Sudoku
Category Archives: Numberphile
Posted by in Infographics, Math, Numberphile, Sudoku
Cancer and statistics
Hannah Fry works with statistics and risk, but her perspective changed when she was diagnosed with cancer. Fry documented the experience and it’s available on BBC:
Hannah Fry, a professor of maths, is used to investigating the world around her through numbers. When she’s diagnosed with cervical cancer at the age of 36, she starts to interrogate the way we diagnose and treat cancer by digging into the statistics to ask whether we are making the right choices in how we treat this disease. Are we sometimes too quick to screen and treat cancer? Do doctors always speak to us honestly about the subject? It may seem like a dangerous question to ask, but are we at risk of overmedicalising cancer?
At the same time, Hannah records her own cancer journey in raw and emotional personal footage, where the realities of life after a cancer diagnosis are laid bare.
You can only watch the film in the UK for now, but she spoke about the topic on the Numberphile podcast. Worth a listen.
Tags: cancer, Hannah Fry, Numberphile, risk
Posted by in cancer, Hannah Fry, Numberphile, Risk, statistics
Lightning algorithm
Matt Henderson on Numberphile shows off a “lightning algorithm” which is actually a maze-solving algorithm that shows the solution at the end. Come for the demo at the beginning but stay for the explanation.
Tags: algorithm, Matt Henderson, Numberphile
Posted by in algorithm, Matt Henderson, Numberphile, Statistical Visualization
Is the hot hand in basketball real?
With Numberphile, Lisa Goldberg discusses her research with Alon Daks and Nishant Desai at the University of California, Berkeley on the hot hand in basketball. When a player is hitting shots, is he more likely to hit the next one? The experiment results suggest that the hot hand is actually just randomness.
That said, there are other points of view on this topic.
As a statistician, I don’t think the hot hand exists mathematically, but as a sports fan, I’m more than happy to ride the wave of excitement.
Tags: basketball, hot hand, Numberphile
Posted by in basketball, hot hand, Numberphile, statistics
Speeding increases energy in a crash proportional to the square
A car moving at 70 miles per hour has to stop suddenly. Another car going 100 miles per hour also has to stop suddenly. Your intuition might say that the former requires 30% less energy to stop, but the energy required is actually proportional to the square of the velocity. Ben Sparks for Numberphile explains:
Okay. Now what are the energy gains and losses for the guy trying to speed by weaving in and out of slow traffic?
Tags: Numberphile, speeding, traffic
Posted by in Numberphile, speeding, statistics, traffic
Math of crime and terrorism
Numberphile, from the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, is one my new favorite YouTube channels. In this episode, Hannah Fry talks crime, data, and the Poisson distribution.
[Thanks, Mike]
Tags: crime, Hannah Fry, Numberphile
Posted by in Crime, Hannah Fry, Numberphile, statistics
How & Why to Shuffle Cards Properly
HT: David Pescovitz at BoingBoing
Filed under: Curiosities of Nature Tagged: cards, Numberphile, Persi Diaconis
Posted by in cards, Curiosities of Nature, Numberphile, Persi Diaconis