Saturday 23 March 2013

Number Ninja

I've been to see Matt Parker, the stand-up mathematician, who was appearing as part of the University of Leeds Festival of Science. It was very entertaining although I won't pretend that I learned a lot. It always staggers me just how thoroughly useless most people are at understanding basic probability theory.

I'm only wearing this because my Ninja outfit is in the wash

I had forgotten about Graham's number, but as it's unimaginably large anyway I'm not sure what benefit it is now that I've been reminded. Still it's interesting to note that the lower bound of the range whose upper limit is Graham's number has moved from 6 to 13 since I first heard about it all those years ago; in two stages as well. Ramsey theory of course does have applications in wargaming, but then again I'm sure you knew that already.

The traditional chap with a beard

Saving the best, and most wargaming relevant, for last: non transitive Grime dice. I'd never heard of these before, but are they neat or what?


Now, I've no idea how one would use them, but I think I shall buy a couple of sets and see what can be done.

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