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In light of my article on how burning money can be a strategy, I wanted to share an unrelated but fun science video about how you can burn money safely.
I remember doing something like this in high school, but we certainly used $1 bills instead of $100 bills. These guys had more confidence than we did back then. Check it out:
I put up this survey about gifts around holiday time.
Here are the results:
I grew up reading Calvin and Hobbes comics. And I still appreciate re-reading and reliving antics of the imaginative Calvin and his partner in crime Hobbes.
There’s something wonderful about Calvin’s energetic and child-like approach to life. And while my teachers never let me read these comics in school–it was strongly discouraged during free reading time–I felt there was a lot of educational value to them.
Looking back, I can see there are some very important lessons I learned about money. Here are 3 lessons that come to mind.
This post is based on the following email I got from Cheryl:
Hi Presh~
Could you write a blog post on game theory tips for fairly dividing household chores/tasks (for roommates, partners, and perhaps coworkers)?
Bonus points for providing easy division methods that people will actually use. In any case, keep up the good work. Thanks.
I thought this was a great question and I wanted to take stab at it. Here are a couple of ideas I came across the following two ideas.
I adapted this puzzle from a Wall Street Journal article about the new book Are you Smart Enough to Work at Google?
I am quite excited about the book because it is written by William Poundstone, whose book I highly recommend. I have personally read How Would you Move Mount Fuji? (brain teasers at Microsoft), Fortune’s Formula (about the Kelly Criterion) and Gaming the Vote (the mathematical oddities of elections).
(I need to read Prisoner’s Dilemma, his book about game theory, which has receieved favorable reviews.)
In any case, on to the puzzle!
A friend sent me a video about a multiplication trick.
The person draws out a certain number of lines for each number, and then counts out points to determine the answer.
It’s a bit hard to explain, so watch this video to see the method:
I may look out of place for wearing these to bars or clubs, but I can rest comfortably knowing I am doing something good for myself.
Identity theft is serious business. According to the Bureau of Justice, U.S. households suffered $13.3 billion in DIRECT financial losses from identity theft in 2010. A few households were lucky to have identity theft with no financial loss. Those that did suffer had an average loss of $2,200. That doesn’t even account for the hassle of the time spent resolving problems.
While you may not be able to prevent identity theft entirely, you can take steps to reduce your risk. Simple things like shredding up personal information and being vigilant can help you avoid being an easy target.
How good are you in protecting yourself? I found an interesting “risk assessment survey” that gives some idea.
This is an interesting game I found in the book Introduction to game theory by Peter Morris that reminds me about the board game Risk.
The Colonel Blotto problem is a zero-sum game about how to best position resources. While Colonel Blotto games are described in a military context, I will explain in future articles some of its useful applications in sports, advertising, elections, and many other areas.
Today I want to highlight a specific Colonel Blotto game that is convenient to solve mathematically.
This is a fun geometric problem with a practical solution:
How can one measure the diagonal of a brick without any formula, using three bricks and a ruler?
Can you solve it? Give it a try before reading the answer below.
I rode in my first buttonless elevator recently at the New Orleans Marriot. I have a mild interest in cool elevators and elevator routing, so I thought I’d share some trivia about these destination elevator dispatch systems.
Destination elevators do not have buttons inside the elevator. Instead, they work like this: you request your floor on the outside, and a routing system tells you which elevator to enter.
Since the elevators are less common, they have instructions, as follows:
I was recently at Jupiters Pizza in Champaign, IL, and we were trying to figure out what to order.
We were deciding between getting individual 9 inch pizzas at $7 a piece, or splitting a couple of medium 14 inch at $14 a piece.
For fun, I wanted to know which pizza was a better value in terms of total area (as is customary, the size refers to the diameter of the pizza). Usually it is the case that larger pizzas are better values, but it is not always the case, so I like to verify.
As I was slowly making the calculation on my cell phone calculator, my friend quickly calculated the 14 inch pizzas were a better deal.
How did he figure it out so fast? Here’s the neat trick he used.
You have no doubt heard that appliances use energy even when not in use. This standby power slowly drains energy at night, and these energy vampires can comprise up to 5% of energy usage.
Accordingly, some people I know save energy by unplugging big energy devices like gaming systems or TVs, or by using power saving surge protectors.
But occasionally, it’s worth applying the same principle to smaller devices, as explained in the story below.
You want to watch the football game. She wants to go out for a movie. Guess which one you end up doing.
It’s not exactly a scientific observation, but time and again, I have seen friends whipped by crazy girlfriends. (I would equally say there are a lot of crazy boyfriends, so don’t get caught up in the gender).
It turns out there is a game theory explanation for this phenomenon which is what I want to explore in this article.
You’ll see why crazy people get their way, and how you can use a similar strategy to fight back.
In a previous post, I discussed ways to design a better blind taste test.
This puzzle is about a taste test with historic significance to statistics.
