Posted in Puzzles and Paradoxes, Teaching, Tidbits on Aug 7th, 2010
Some links: The Central Limit Theorem, Edges of Graphs, and Graph Layout, (Leland Wilkinson). The Monty Hall Problem, (The New York Times). Take this question out back…, (Language Log). Finally, the great Lenny Pickett, (circa 1973). He is the one in the bow tie.
Posted in Puzzles and Paradoxes on Jul 23rd, 2009
I just finished reading this interesting paper recently written (and presented at the last PSA) by the philosopher of mathematics Chris Pincock. In this work, Pincock highlights the following puzzle for Bayesians. Paraphrasing, The rules of the probability calculus mandate that logically equivalent propositions be assigned the same probability; however, insofar as probabilities are interpreted as [...]
Posted in Puzzles and Paradoxes on Jun 16th, 2009
Ok sorry about the lull in activity on here. Marking and conference organisation duties haven’t really helped… Here’s something that has been at the back of my mind for a few months. This is almost certainly old hat, but given that this is not my area of research and that I do not know this [...]
Posted in Puzzles and Paradoxes on Apr 30th, 2009
A friend and colleague of mine recently sent me some thoughts and questions pertaining to Peirce, probabilities, and single cases. I’d be very interested in getting others’ thoughts on this. Thus, here (with his permission) is an excerpt from my friend’s email: I was thinking about the problem of the single case today, and I [...]
Posted in Puzzles and Paradoxes on Apr 27th, 2009
I have recently written up a very short paper, in which I suggest that an old puzzle from the Martin Gardner books, known as the ‘Second Ace’ puzzle, could be used as a counterexample to van Fraassen’s reflection principles and their more recent descendants. The puzzle doesn’t seem to have been widely discussed in the [...]
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