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UID:afb194eb10e5089f4e8ba6258dffd1a5
CATEGORIES:Experimental Mathematics Seminar
CREATED:20260205T181654
SUMMARY: Game theory, Scrabble, and poisons
LOCATION:https://rutgers.zoom.us/j/95103383827    password: 6564120420
DESCRIPTION:We describe two unexpected applications of game theory to recreational math
 ematics. The first, which is joint work with Scrabble expert Nick Ballard, 
 is a Scrabble position in which the best strategy is mixed (i.e., randomize
 d). Although it is not theoretically surprising that such positions should 
 exist, ours is the first provably correct explicit example, and even elite 
 Scrabble players find it striking. The second concerns an old but little-kn
 own lateral-thinking "poison puzzle" by Michael Rabin, which turns out to h
 ave several alternative solutions to the intended solution. We are led to c
 onsider a two-player game with three distinct Nash equilibria, which is dif
 ficult to analyze theoretically and begs for experimental investigation\n
X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:<p style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium
 ; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; 
 text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; wor
 d-spacing: 0px;">We describe two unexpected applications of game theory to 
 recreational mathematics. The first, which is joint work with Scrabble expe
 rt Nick Ballard, is a Scrabble position in which the best strategy is mixed
  (i.e., randomized). Although it is not theoretically surprising that such 
 positions should exist, ours is the first provably correct explicit example
 , and even elite Scrabble players find it striking. The second concerns an 
 old but little-known lateral-thinking "poison puzzle" by Michael Rabin, whi
 ch turns out to have several alternative solutions to the intended solution
 . We are led to consider a two-player game with three distinct Nash equilib
 ria, which is difficult to analyze theoretically and begs for experimental 
 investigation</p>
CONTACT:Timothy Chow, Center for Communication Research, Princeton, NJ
DTSTAMP:20260830T033737
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260219T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260219T180000
SEQUENCE:0
TRANSP:OPAQUE
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