Americans, Math Says “Your Next President Is….”

[This is a back issue of this site’s newsletter. It was originally sent out in August 2015, but only published online in June 2016]

Remember last week’s email, about elections? If there are two major parties in an election, they both tend to be centrist. That’s because if one shifts left or right, it ends up losing votes to the other. Continue reading Americans, Math Says “Your Next President Is….”

Winning The Bedtime Game

John Nash, who recently passed away, won the Nobel Prize in economics for his work on game theory. Here’s why.

Imagine you’re a parent, trying to make your three-year-old go to bed. There’s lots of ways you might try to do this, but let’s boil it down to two options: gentle, or firm. Your tiny tot also has two choices: obedient or, shall we say, obstreperous.

Continue reading Winning The Bedtime Game

R.I.P. John Nash

John Nash has died, aged 86.

John Nash is most famous for his work on game theory. Game theory tries to understand, mathematically, how people behave in situations where they have to compete or cooperate with another person, like “Rock Scissors Paper”, getting kids to go to bed, house auctions or nuclear disarmament negotiations.

Continue reading R.I.P. John Nash