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Persi Warren Diaconis
Persi Warren Diaconis (; born January 31, 1945) is an American mathematician of Greek descent and former professional magician. He is the Mary V. Sunseri Professor of Statistics and Mathematics at Stanford University. He is particularly known for tackling mathematical problems involving randomness and randomization, such as coin flipping and shuffling playing cards. Biography Diaconis left home at 14 to travel with sleight-of-hand legend Dai Vernon, and was awarded a high school diploma based on grades given to him by his teachers after dropping out of George Washington High School. He returned to school at age 24 to learn math, motivated to read William Feller's famous two-volume treatise on probability theory, ''An Introduction to Probability Theory and Its Applications''. He attended the City College of New York for his undergraduate work, graduating in 1971, and then obtained a Ph.D. in Mathematical Statistics from Harvard University in 1974, learned to read Feller, and b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mathematical Statistics
Mathematical statistics is the application of probability theory and other mathematical concepts to statistics, as opposed to techniques for collecting statistical data. Specific mathematical techniques that are commonly used in statistics include mathematical analysis, linear algebra, stochastic analysis, differential equations, and measure theory. Introduction Statistical data collection is concerned with the planning of studies, especially with the design of randomized experiments and with the planning of surveys using random sampling. The initial analysis of the data often follows the study protocol specified prior to the study being conducted. The data from a study can also be analyzed to consider secondary hypotheses inspired by the initial results, or to suggest new studies. A secondary analysis of the data from a planned study uses tools from data analysis, and the process of doing this is mathematical statistics. Data analysis is divided into: * descriptive stati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematical model, models, and mathematics#Calculus and analysis, change. History One of the earliest known mathematicians was Thales of Miletus (); he has been hailed as the first true mathematician and the first known individual to whom a mathematical discovery has been attributed. He is credited with the first use of deductive reasoning applied to geometry, by deriving four corollaries to Thales's theorem. The number of known mathematicians grew when Pythagoras of Samos () established the Pythagorean school, whose doctrine it was that mathematics ruled the universe and whose motto was "All is number". It was the Pythagoreans who coined the term "mathematics", and with whom the study of mathematics for its own sake begins. The first woman math ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Georgia College & State University
Georgia College & State University (Georgia College or GCSU) is a public liberal arts university in Milledgeville, Georgia, United States. The university enrolls approximately 7,000 students and is a member of the University System of Georgia and the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges. Georgia College was designated Georgia's "Public Liberal Arts University" in 1996 by the Georgia Board of Regents. Students pursue majors and graduate degree programs throughout the university's four colleges: College of Arts & Sciences, J. Whitney Bunting College of Business and Technology, John H. Lounsbury College of Education, and College of Health Sciences. Georgia College Athletics sponsors 11 varsity teams which compete in NCAA Division II as a member of the Peach Belt Conference. History Georgia College was chartered in 1889 as Georgia Normal and Industrial College. Its emphasis at the time was largely vocational, and its major task was to prepare young women for teaching or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Washington Educational Campus
The George Washington Educational Campus is a facility of the New York City Department of Education located at 549 Audubon Avenue at West 193rd Street in the Fort George neighborhood of Washington Heights, Manhattan, New York City, United States. Within the building are located four schools: * The first floor is the High School for Media and Communications (M463). * The second floor houses The College Academy, formerly the High School for International Business and Finance (M462). * The third floor houses the High School for Health Careers and Sciences (M468). * The fourth floor houses the High School for Law and Public Service (M467). The building is located on the site of the former Fort George Amusement Park. The school opened on February 2, 1917, as an annex of Morris High School. George Washington High School was founded in 1919, and moved into the building in 1925. It was known by that name until 1999, when the building was divided into the four small schools. Ge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dai Vernon
David Frederick Wingfield Verner (June 11, 1894August 21, 1992), better known by his stage names Dai Vernon (pronounced alternatively as "DIE" or as "DAY" as in David) or The Professor, was a Canadian magician. Vernon's sleight of hand technique and knowledge, particularly with card tricks and close-up magic, garnered him respect among fellow magicians, and he was a mentor to them. From 1963, he worked at and lived out his last decades at the Magic Castle, an exclusive specialty nightclub in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. Vernon retired officially from performing in 1990 at the age of 96. Early life Vernon was born in Ottawa, Canada, as David Frederick Wingfield Verner. While performing, he often mentioned that he had learned his first trick from his father at age seven, adding wryly that he had "wasted the first six years" of his life. His father was a government worker and an amateur magician. Vernon studied mechanical engineering at the Royal Military College ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sleight-of-hand
Sleight of hand (also known as prestidigitation or ''legerdemain'' () comprises fine motor skills used by performing artists in different art forms to entertain or manipulate. It is closely associated with close-up magic, card magic, card flourishing and stealing. Because of its heavy use and practice by magicians, sleight of hand is often confused as a branch of magic; however, it is a separate genre of entertainment and many artists practice sleight of hand as an independent skill. Sleight of hand pioneers with worldwide acclaim include Dan and Dave, Ricky Jay, Derek DelGaudio, David Copperfield, Yann Frisch, Norbert Ferré, Dai Vernon, Jerry Sadowitz, Cardini, Tony Slydini, Helder Guimarães and Tom Mullica. Etymology and history The word ''sleight'', meaning "the use of dexterity or cunning, especially so as to deceive", comes from the Old Norse. The phrase ''sleight of hand'' means "quick fingers" or "trickster fingers". Common synonyms of Latin and French in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shuffling Playing Cards
Shuffling is a technique used to randomization, randomize a deck of playing cards, introducing an element of chance into card games. Various shuffling methods exist, each with its own characteristics and potential for manipulation. One of the simplest shuffling techniques is the overhand shuffle, where small packets of cards are transferred from one hand to the other. This method is easy to perform but can be manipulated to control the order of cards. Another common technique is the riffle shuffle, where the deck is split into two halves and interleaved. This method is more complex but minimizes the risk of exposing cards. The Gilbert–Shannon–Reeds model suggests that seven riffle shuffles are sufficient to thoroughly randomize a deck, although some studies indicate that six shuffles may be enough. Other shuffling methods include the Hindu shuffle, commonly used in Asia, and the pile shuffle, where cards are dealt into piles and then stacked. The Mongean shuffle involves a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coin Flipping
Coin flipping, coin tossing, or heads or tails is using the thumb to make a coin go up while spinning in the air and checking which side is showing when it is down onto a surface, in order to randomly choose between two alternatives. It is a form of sortition which inherently has two possible outcomes. History Coin flipping was known to the Romans as ''navia aut caput'' ("ship or head"), as some coins had a ship on one side and the head of the emperor on the other. In England, this was referred to as ''cross and pile''. Process During a coin toss, the coin is thrown into the air such that it rotates edge-over-edge an unpredictable number of times. Either beforehand or when the coin is in the air, an interested party declares "heads" or "tails", indicating which side of the coin that party is choosing. The other party is assigned the opposite side. Depending on custom, the coin may be caught; caught and inverted; or allowed to land on the ground. When the coin comes to rest, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Randomization
Randomization is a statistical process in which a random mechanism is employed to select a sample from a population or assign subjects to different groups.Oxford English Dictionary "randomization" The process is crucial in ensuring the random allocation of experimental units or treatment protocols, thereby minimizing selection bias and enhancing the Validity (statistics), statistical validity. It facilitates the objective comparison of treatment effects in Design of experiments, experimental design, as it equates groups statistically by balancing both known and unknown factors at the outset of the study. In statistical terms, it underpins the principle of probabilistic equivalence among groups, allowing for the unbiased estimation of treatment effects and the generalizability of conclusions drawn from sample data to the broader population. Randomization is not haphazard; instead, a stochastic process, random process is a sequence of random variables describing a process whose outcom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Randomness
In common usage, randomness is the apparent or actual lack of definite pattern or predictability in information. A random sequence of events, symbols or steps often has no order and does not follow an intelligible pattern or combination. Individual random events are, by definition, unpredictable, but if there is a known probability distribution, the frequency of different outcomes over repeated events (or "trials") is predictable.Strictly speaking, the frequency of an outcome will converge almost surely to a predictable value as the number of trials becomes arbitrarily large. Non-convergence or convergence to a different value is possible, but has probability zero. Consistent non-convergence is thus evidence of the lack of a fixed probability distribution, as in many evolutionary processes. For example, when throwing two dice, the outcome of any particular roll is unpredictable, but a sum of 7 will tend to occur twice as often as 4. In this view, randomness is not haphaza ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mathematics
Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many areas of mathematics, which include number theory (the study of numbers), algebra (the study of formulas and related structures), geometry (the study of shapes and spaces that contain them), Mathematical analysis, analysis (the study of continuous changes), and set theory (presently used as a foundation for all mathematics). Mathematics involves the description and manipulation of mathematical object, abstract objects that consist of either abstraction (mathematics), abstractions from nature orin modern mathematicspurely abstract entities that are stipulated to have certain properties, called axioms. Mathematics uses pure reason to proof (mathematics), prove properties of objects, a ''proof'' consisting of a succession of applications of in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Statistics
Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a scientific, industrial, or social problem, it is conventional to begin with a statistical population or a statistical model to be studied. Populations can be diverse groups of people or objects such as "all people living in a country" or "every atom composing a crystal". Statistics deals with every aspect of data, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of statistical survey, surveys and experimental design, experiments. When census data (comprising every member of the target population) cannot be collected, statisticians collect data by developing specific experiment designs and survey sample (statistics), samples. Representative sampling assures that inferences and conclusions can reasonably extend from the sample ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
