Video: safety in numbers
Consider the following game. Two generals have 5 units each to deploy. Each person decides how many units to send to battle. The general who sends more troops will win, but it's a draw if they both send the same number. Each also has the option of "passing" which averts war and ...

How to beat the Prisoner’s Dilemma in the TV game show Golden Balls
Golden Balls is an amusing British game show. Especially interesting is the final contest which is a version of the Prisoner's Dilemma. If you're never seen the show, here is how it works. Each of two contestants independently chooses to split or steal the final prize. If both choose split, then ...

Video: understanding the Shapley-Shubik voting power index
With the election coming up this year, I thought it timely to revisit some voting theory. One of the useful concepts in voting theory is having an index that determines how powerful particular voters are. One of the voting power indices used is called the Shapley-Shubik index, which I have talked ...

Video: Tom Haverford uses game theory in relationship advice
Tom Haverford has a lot of funny ideas on the show Parks and Recreation. In one scene, he dispenses relationship advice to his friend about how to handle his anger. It turns out Tom has something of a hidden agenda, as the following clip illustrates.

Video: splitting the bill
Excedrin has a funny commercial about the annoyances that come with splitting the bill. This poor diner is with a group of friends who ordered the same thing, and yet use every excuse in the book to avoid paying their fair share. How many have you experienced? See the video after the ...

Video: monkey cooperation and fairness
While game theory was originally designed to explain human strategy, it turns out that the predictions are often applicable in animal behavior. Here is a fun video that shows an experiment about monkeys and cooperation.

Video: don’t use penny auction sites
I have been meaning to write about penny auction sites like Quibids and Skoreit. These sites got big a couple years ago, and there are some great articles at codinghorror.com about how they are a scam and basically a lottery. This would be fine if the sites were regulated like a lottery. ...

Video: burning a $100 bill
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 ...

Multiplying with lines math trick: how it works
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:

Video: strategy in a TV game show
Game theory concepts can often help when trying to win prizes on a TV game show. I have previously written about a couple of the scenarios from the U.S. show The Price is Right: Optimal strategy in spinning the wheel Strategy for Pay the Rent Strictly dominated strategies in Lucky Seven I came across ...

Video: Braess Paradox demonstrated with springs
A couple years ago, a few roads in my town were closed due to flooding. I was at first worried the road closures would make roads congested. But to my surprise, traffic seemed to be moving faster. Why was that?

Video: the “hardest” geometry problem in the world
Rushmore is a rather quirky but interesting movie that came out in 1998. One of the scenes I particularly enjoyed is about the main character doing a mathematical proof. During class, Max Fischer asks the teacher about a math problem written on the board. The teacher explains the problem is a joke: ...

Video: When not knowing math can cost you $15,000
Game shows occasionally ask math questions, and it is always amusing to see if contestants can answer them. What follows is a clip from the show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire." The contestant had already won $1,000, and he could win an extra $15,000 by getting the question right. The question ...

Denny’s math commercial
I have a soft spot for TV commercials that mention math, as you may recall from my post about Little Caesar's pizza topping combinations. I recently came across a commercial for Denny's that also brings up a math problem involving combinations. It's a much easier problem but I still found it ...

Dilbert Prisoner’s Dilemma – Youtube video
An amusing clip from the short-lived Dilbert TV series. Dilbert and his friends find themselves in a three-way Prisoner's Dilemma. See how it turns out: