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Parrondo's Paradox
Parrondo's paradox, a paradox in game theory, describes how a combination of losing strategies can become a winning strategy. It is named after its creator, Juan Parrondo, who discovered the paradox in 1996. A simple example involves two coin flip games: Game A uses a biased coin that loses 50.5% of the time, while Game B switches between two different biased coins depending on whether your current winnings are even or odd. Though both games individually favor the house, alternating between them creates a net winning strategy. This occurs because the alternation causes players to spend more time in the favorable states of Game B, while Game A's consistent bias helps reset the system into those advantageous conditions. Parrondo devised the paradox in connection with his analysis of the Brownian ratchet, a thought experiment about a machine that can purportedly extract energy from random heat motions popularized by physicist Richard Feynman. However, the paradox disappears when ri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paradox
A paradox is a logically self-contradictory statement or a statement that runs contrary to one's expectation. It is a statement that, despite apparently valid reasoning from true or apparently true premises, leads to a seemingly self-contradictory or a logically unacceptable conclusion. A paradox usually involves contradictory-yet-interrelated elements that exist simultaneously and persist over time. They result in "persistent contradiction between interdependent elements" leading to a lasting "unity of opposites". In logic, many paradoxes exist that are known to be invalid arguments, yet are nevertheless valuable in promoting critical thinking, while other paradoxes have revealed errors in definitions that were assumed to be rigorous, and have caused axioms of mathematics and logic to be re-examined. One example is Russell's paradox, which questions whether a "list of all lists that do not contain themselves" would include itself and showed that attempts to found set theory on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Braess's Paradox
Braess's paradox is the observation that adding one or more roads to a road network can slow down overall road traffic, traffic flow through it. The paradox was first discovered by Arthur Cecil Pigou, Arthur Pigou in 1920, and Stigler's law of eponymy, later named after the German mathematician Dietrich Braess in 1968. The paradox may have analogies in electrical power grids and biological systems. It has been suggested that, in theory, the improvement of a malfunctioning network could be accomplished by removing certain parts of it. The paradox has been used to explain instances of improved traffic flow when existing major roads are closed. Discovery and definition Dietrich Braess, a mathematician at Ruhr University, Germany, noticed the flow in a road network could be impeded by adding a new road, when he was working on traffic modelling. His idea was that if each driver is making the optimization, optimal self-interested decision as to which route is quickest, a shortcut cou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Arnold Epstein
Richard Arnold Epstein (March 5, 1927 in Los Angeles, California – July 5, 2016), also known under the pseudonym E. P. Stein, was an American game theorist. Education Epstein obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1948. He then studied at the University of California Berkeley. He received his doctorate in physics, on the Born formalization of isochromatic lines, in 1961, from the University of Barcelona. Career He then shifted from spectroscopy to space communications, and worked for eighteen years as an electronics and communications engineer for various U.S. space and missile programs. He was variously employed by Parsons-Aerojet Company at Cape Canaveral, Glenn L. Martin Company, TRW Space Technology Laboratories, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Hughes Aircraft Space Systems Division. Epstein has numerous technical publications in the areas of probability theory, statistics, game theory, and space communications. In 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iryna Sushko
Iryna Sushko (born 1967) is a Ukrainian mathematician who works as a senior research fellow in the Institute of Mathematics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and as a visiting professor at the Kyiv School of Economics. Her research concerns nonlinear dynamical systems and their applications in economics and radio engineering. Education and career Sushko was born in 1967, near Kyiv. She earned a master's degree in cybernetics from the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv in 1989. After postgraduate study at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, she earned a candidate (PhD) degree in physics and mathematics in 1993, supervised by Oleksandr Mykolayovych Sharkovsky. She became a research fellow at the National Academy of Sciences in 1993 and was promoted to senior research fellow in 2002. In 2004–2005 she visited the University of Urbino as a Marie Curie Fellow of the European Community. Since 2009 to 2020 she has also held a position as a visiting prof ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Julian Chela-Flores
Julian Chela-Flores (born 13 June 1942) is a Venezuelan astrobiologist and physicist. He is known for his contributions to the field of planetary habitability. Biography His father, Raimundo Chela a mathematician of Lebanese family, encouraged his studies in science, while his mother raised his interest in the humanities. He lived in England where he studied in the University of London, obtaining a PhD in Quantum Mechanics in 1969. His field of research is astrobiology, in other words the science of the origin, evolution, distribution and destiny of life in the universe, especially life on Europa, the Jovian satellite. From 1971 till 1990 he worked in academic matters continually, especially in research at the Centre of Physics, the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research (Full Researcher 1978) and at the Physics Department, Simon Bolivar University (Full Professor 1980), both in Caracas. He is Full Professor ad honorem at the Institute for Advanced Studies (IDEA, Cara ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sergey M
Sergey may refer to: * Sergey (name), a Russian given name (including a list of people with the name) * Sergey, Switzerland Sergey is a municipality in the district of Jura-Nord Vaudois in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. History Sergey is first mentioned in 1321 as ''Sergeys''. Geography Sergey has an area, , of . Of this area, or 67.1% is used for agricultura ..., a municipality in Switzerland * ''Sergey'' (wasp), a genus in subfamily Doryctinae {{Disambiguation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eric W
The given name Eric, Erich, Erikk, Erik, Erick, Eirik, or Eiríkur is derived from the Old Norse name ''Eiríkr'' (or ''Eríkr'' in Old East Norse due to monophthongization). The first element, ''ei-'' may be derived from the older Proto-Norse ''* aina(z)'', meaning "one, alone, unique", ''as in the form'' ''Æ∆inrikr'' explicitly, but it could also be from ''* aiwa(z)'' "everlasting, eternity", as in the Gothic form '' Euric''. The second element ''- ríkr'' stems either from Proto-Germanic ''* ríks'' "king, ruler" (cf. Gothic '' reiks'') or the therefrom derived ''* ríkijaz'' "kingly, powerful, rich, prince"; from the common Proto-Indo-European root * h₃rḗǵs. The name is thus usually taken to mean "sole ruler, autocrat" or "eternal ruler, ever powerful". ''Eric'' used in the sense of a proper noun meaning "one ruler" may be the origin of '' Eriksgata'', and if so it would have meant "one ruler's journey". The tour was the medieval Swedish king's journey, when new ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neil F
Neil is a masculine name of Irish origin. The name is an anglicisation of the Irish '' Niall'' which is of disputed derivation. The Irish name may be derived from words meaning "cloud", "passionate", "victory", "honour" or "champion".. As a surname, Neil is traced back to Niall of the Nine Hostages who was an Irish king and eponymous ancestor of the Uí Néill and MacNeil kindred. Most authorities cite the meaning of Neil in the context of a surname as meaning "champion". Origins The Gaelic name was adopted by the Vikings and taken to Iceland as ''Njáll'' (see Nigel). From Iceland it went via Norway, Denmark, and Normandy to England. The name also entered Northern England and Yorkshire directly from Ireland, and from Norwegian settlers. ''Neal'' or ''Neall'' is the Middle English form of ''Nigel''. As a first name, during the Middle Ages, the Gaelic name of Irish origins was popular in Ireland and later Scotland. During the 20th century ''Neil'' began to be used in England and N ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Allen Paulos
John Allen Paulos (born July 4, 1945) is an American professor of mathematics at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has gained fame as a writer and speaker on mathematics and the importance of mathematical literacy. Paulos writes about many subjects, especially of the dangers of mathematical innumeracy; that is, the layperson's misconceptions about numbers, probability, and logic. Early life Paulos was born in Denver, Colorado and grew up in Chicago, Illinois and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he attended high school. After his Bachelor of Mathematics at University of Wisconsin (1967) and his Master of Science at University of Washington (1968), he received his PhD in mathematics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison (1974). In an interview he described himself as lifelong skeptic. He volunteered for the Peace Corps in the seventies. Career His academic work is mainly in mathematical logic and probability theory. His book '' Innumeracy: Mathematical Illi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Statistical Mechanics
In physics, statistical mechanics is a mathematical framework that applies statistical methods and probability theory to large assemblies of microscopic entities. Sometimes called statistical physics or statistical thermodynamics, its applications include many problems in a wide variety of fields such as biology, neuroscience, computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ..., information theory and sociology. Its main purpose is to clarify the properties of matter in aggregate, in terms of physical laws governing atomic motion. Statistical mechanics arose out of the development of classical thermodynamics, a field for which it was successful in explaining macroscopic physical properties—such as temperature, pressure, and heat capacity—in terms of microscop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ratchet Effect
The ratchet effect is a concept in sociology and economics illustrating the difficulty with reversing a course of action once a specific thing has occurred, analogous with the mechanical ratchet (device), ratchet that allows movement in one direction and seizes or tightens in the opposite. The concept has been applied to multiple fields of study and is related to the phenomena of scope creep, mission creep, and feature creep. Background The ratchet effect first came to light in Alan T. Peacock, Alan Peacock and Jack Wiseman (economist), Jack Wiseman's 1961 report "The Growth of Public Expenditure in the United Kingdom." Peacock and Wiseman found that public spending increases like a ratchet following periods of crisis. The term was later expanded upon by American historian Robert Higgs in the 1987 book ''Crisis and Leviathan,'' highlighting Peacock and Wiseman's research as it relates to governments experiencing difficulty in Rollback (legislation), rolling back huge bureaucra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Paradoxes
This list includes well known paradoxes, grouped thematically. The grouping is approximate, as paradoxes may fit into more than one category. This list collects only scenarios that have been called a paradox by at least one source and have their own article in this encyclopedia. These paradoxes may be due to fallacious reasoning (falsidical), or an unintuitive solution (Veridical paradox, veridical). The term ''paradox'' is often used to describe a counter-intuitive result. However, some of these paradoxes qualify to fit into the mainstream viewpoint of a paradox, which is a self-contradictory result gained even while properly applying accepted ways of reasoning. These paradoxes, often called ''antinomy,'' point out genuine problems in our understanding of the ideas of truth and Definite description, description. Logic * : The supposition that, "if one of two simultaneous assumptions leads to a contradiction, the other assumption is also disproved" leads to paradoxical conseq ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
