How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking - with Jordan Ellenberg

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  • Опубліковано 6 вер 2024
  • The maths we learn in school can seem like a dull set of rules, laid down by the ancients and not to be questioned. Jordan Ellenberg shows how wrong this view is through stories that show the power of mathematical thinking.
    Buy Jordan's book "How Not to Be Wrong: The Hidden Maths of Everyday Life" - geni.us/aBdKqAq
    Subscribe for regular science videos: bit.ly/RiSubscRibe
    Maths touches everything we do, allowing us to see the hidden structures beneath the messy and chaotic surface of our daily lives. Maths is the science of not being wrong, worked out through centuries of hard work and argument.
    Jordan Ellenberg is a professor of Mathematics at University of Wisconsin, and the 'Do the Math' columnist at Slate. His book 'How not to be wrong: The hidden mathematics of everyday life' was be published in June 2015.
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  • Наука та технологія

КОМЕНТАРІ • 570

  • @tuga2112
    @tuga2112 4 роки тому +171

    Am i the only one that finds Jordan's enthusiasm while explaining this pretty contagious ?

    • @TheRoyalInstitution
      @TheRoyalInstitution  4 роки тому +19

      Nope, we agree.

    • @rainmaker704
      @rainmaker704 4 роки тому +13

      His enthusiasm is kinda comedic. I feel like he may be good at telling jokes. His enthusiasm makes you want to participate. I randomly found this vid but i watched the whole thing just because his enthusiasm got me excited.

    • @appleslover
      @appleslover 4 роки тому +4

      Yeah, it's catchier than the cororavirus

    • @ancientswordrage
      @ancientswordrage 4 роки тому

      SAME!

    • @nashkairo4863
      @nashkairo4863 3 роки тому

      A tip: watch series on flixzone. Been using it for watching loads of movies during the lockdown.

  • @afihaileywibowo1095
    @afihaileywibowo1095 5 місяців тому +6

    I'm reading his book as we speak - amazing book, I feel my confidence drops realizing people are so smart, but I enjoy it nevertheless. And as simple as it is, it took me a while to grasp about the armor bullet plane analogy. I realized it's in the language, or my lack of English understanding thereof. Prof. Ellenberg said quoting Wald: "You have to put the armor where the bullet is not". I spin my head around it. I understand, but not that fully understand like Aha! So after a while I rephrase: You have to put the armor at it's (the plane) weakest, and it could be: easy to target / the biggest / the most exposed / the most vulnerable area. Bingo! Make sense to me! Where do the police put the bulletproof vest; on the body! Why not head, easily - well not that easy - targeted and exposed too, because head is smaller and you need precision. Anyway, I continue reading. This is for my note only😅

    • @ben.p
      @ben.p 16 днів тому

      The planes that came back with bullet holes survived well enough to make it back. Therefore we should reinforce the planes with bullet holes that didn’t make it back. If you want more planes to make it back.

    • @ben.p
      @ben.p 16 днів тому

      Survivorship bias if you wanna read more

    • @ben.p
      @ben.p 16 днів тому

      If you want to apply this thinking outside of planes, you could think of entrepreneurs; reinforcing where the bullets are not with respect to entrepreneurs means learning from those whose businesses failed and correcting their mistakes rather than those whose businesses succeeded and trying to replicate their success

  • @BlueSoulTiger
    @BlueSoulTiger 4 роки тому +27

    The essence of Projective geometry in 2 minutes (38:39). Excellent

  • @hughjazz4936
    @hughjazz4936 4 роки тому +137

    "Hmm, these stories sound familiar, don't I have a book with these?" Turns out I got this guy's book.

  • @demerex6510
    @demerex6510 5 років тому +34

    He made his explanation of why/how he chose his numbers much more complicated than it really had to be. His picks were simply the set of all 3 digit combinations that include a unique pair of 2 numbers. You will see that no combination will include the same 2 numbers (i.e you wouldn't use 1,2,3 and 2,3,4). There are 7 possible combinations which is why he said to select 7 tickets. Since you only need 2 number correct in order to win, you always win. So I would imagine that the MIT students did the same thing but scaled up and that the number of possible combinations using this method matched the number of tickets the MIT group was purchasing.

    • @agcwall
      @agcwall 5 років тому +8

      Thank you. Yes. As a computer scientist his explanation infuriates me. As you generate tickets, all you need to do is track how many times you've used each number, and pick the ones that you've used the least so far. The non-Euclidean space with line intersections is interesting, but totally misses the point.

    • @deeXaeed
      @deeXaeed 5 років тому +1

      I was thinking exactly the same. But I am still a beginner so I don't know.

    • @abrahamlincoln9055
      @abrahamlincoln9055 5 років тому +3

      Well. I think the " projective geometry" behind the number picking was just a gimmick to make the lecture more interesting. Maybe to make him look more intelligent. Or a marketing strategy to sell more books. You know how it goes. When people see something which seems smart and they can kind of understand they buy it. I could not find any substance in his lecture other than cheap curiosities.

    • @marko8584
      @marko8584 5 років тому +1

      And like he said,Mit guys played lottery that had better value than cost/ticket.
      So in his example-lottery the main prize should have been 7$ and deuce 3$.
      And thats how you win.

    • @peterkay7458
      @peterkay7458 5 років тому +1

      demerex thank you that is very well explained much appreciated. I tutor physics and math but statistics was nver my thing...drove me nuts actually

  • @mathgasm8484
    @mathgasm8484 3 роки тому +10

    One of my professors got me to read this book and talked about it for the semester each week.

  • @doodelay
    @doodelay 8 років тому +25

    I'm reading it's book and he's got great wit and humor. This all becomes apparent within the first few pages. Further, he's taught me so much about mathematics.

    • @ThunderAppeal
      @ThunderAppeal 5 років тому +2

      Which indicates that you knew absolutely nothing about math.
      If I were you I wouldnt admit to what you admitted to.

    • @ReasonableForseeability
      @ReasonableForseeability 5 років тому +2

      @@ThunderAppeal He also wrote "I'm reading it's book" and there are two errors in the word IT'S:
      one semantic (should be HIS or HER) and one grammatical: (ITS, if Jordan is neuter).

  • @thomaskirsch2209
    @thomaskirsch2209 5 років тому +25

    The talk is good. The book is great. I am on the 2nd read and find it to be one of the better maths books I have read. Any engineer or engineering student should get much from this book simply from the exposure to applied statistical mathematics. Thank you for a wonderful book.

    • @ravegraveyard
      @ravegraveyard 4 роки тому +1

      Thomas Kirsch is the book something like freakonomics?

  • @erictaylor5462
    @erictaylor5462 4 роки тому +5

    27:00 Haven't seen ahead yet, but I think I know why they filled it out by hand. For the strategy to work, they needed all different numbers.
    Having the "quick picks" would have given them tickets with the exact same number.
    Lets see if I'm right.

  • @n-steam
    @n-steam 6 років тому +6

    @ 8:06 the expected value of the lottery ticket is not 79.8 cents, it's 59.1 cents.
    The error is in assuming that a 'free ticket' has the value of the ticket price, when the value is actually the expected value of the ticket.
    This produces an equation like:
    n = 1/9.3 + 4/39 + 15/80 + 5/47 + n/6.8
    n-n/6.8 = 1/9.3 + 4/39 + 15/80 + 5/47
    5.8n = 6.8x(1/9.3 + 4/39 + 15/80 + 5/47)
    n = (6.8/5.8)x(1/9.3 + 4/39 + 15/80 + 5/47)
    which works out to be $0.5908...

    • @Jeff121456
      @Jeff121456 5 років тому

      Another interesting point is that the state does not get that $0.80 on the free tickets nor does it increase the rollover.

    • @ReasonableForseeability
      @ReasonableForseeability 5 років тому

      I disagree. But I guess it's debatable. Here I'd say the value is the price.
      Even if it's the expected value, we have a recursive definition because the E.V. depends on the value.
      I guess you could call it x and get a simple equation in x (which appears on both sides).

  • @happy_labs
    @happy_labs 7 років тому +83

    I'm really surprised to see negativity in the comments, because I spent this whole talk thinking wow this guy has a really engaging presentation style.

    • @Friek555
      @Friek555 6 років тому +5

      I got very annoyed by him yelling at me for no reason. He has a microphone, he doesn't need to yell like he does. It just makes his voice very annoying to me.

    • @MartinJohnZ
      @MartinJohnZ 5 років тому +1

      I like his presentation style. He sounds like he's going to burst out in laughter any time.

    • @gkess7106
      @gkess7106 5 років тому

      The umm, Right?, OK? are his stalling tricks so his fast speaking doesn’t slow when he has to arrange his next sentence in his mind. Training could help him with all this. Math easily flows through his mind. Slowing it to verbalize is painful to ‘watch’.

    • @mooster47
      @mooster47 5 років тому +1

      I am not surprised at the undeserved negativity. It's obvious some people get a thrill out of finding fault. It's everywhere on the internet in response to virtually everything. Some people are only here for these opportunities, and the more expert the speaker or writer, the more rewarding this is for anonymous people who probably lack more positive ways to stroke their own egos. In no way is this meant to object to constructive criticism that is clearly intended to be helpful. For an example of that, see the remark by Oliv Trees above. In any case, I found Dr. Ellenberg's manner of speaking quite engaging and the subject matter much more entertaining than I expected, as a person who is generally rather maths aversive and frequently annoyed by the speech patterns of certain speakers. I'll bet the courses he teaches fill up fast. When mentally stable people encounter something they don't like on this massive smorgasbord they immediately leave in search of something else. They don't hang around to poke jabs.

    • @rudyNok
      @rudyNok 5 років тому +3

      He is annoyingly screeching and shrieking a lot. If he would speak a little calmer the talk would be much more enjoyable.

  • @juanamador2965
    @juanamador2965 4 роки тому +7

    I read the story about James Harvey from MIT and his Random Hall strategy and Mohan Srivastava who cracked the tic tac toe scratch off lottery are My favorites.

  • @Blackmark52
    @Blackmark52 8 років тому +95

    Regarding the first story, I've heard that before, but it was a different story. It was about helmets in WWI. The generals wanted to know why wearing helmets caused so many more wounded soldiers and how to fix the problem. The analyst pointed out that dead soldiers without helmets weren't counted among the wounded.

    • @user-qo3qm7ud1d
      @user-qo3qm7ud1d 5 років тому +16

      Yeah. It is called "Survivorship bias". en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias

    • @TooManyBrackets
      @TooManyBrackets 5 років тому +1

      Heard this same story about Lord Blacketts operational research group in the UK....

    • @tzslungnip3843
      @tzslungnip3843 5 років тому +21

      I think if the Brits took the target off the fuselage, more pilots would come back.

    • @irrelevant_noob
      @irrelevant_noob 5 років тому +9

      Tzs Lung Nip but what if that was kind of a reverse-psychology trick, that made the enemy shoot at the target instead of other more fragile bits of the airplane? ;-)

    • @tzslungnip3843
      @tzslungnip3843 5 років тому +4

      @@irrelevant_noob I think that's what they tell the new widows.

  • @zenpvnk
    @zenpvnk 5 років тому +31

    Great book... very entertaining read. Got it from the library, but when I finished I had to go buy a copy just to have, cus I love having cool books (especially cool math books). This is a cool one.

    • @adamkaidunnaustralia5158
      @adamkaidunnaustralia5158 4 роки тому

      lol It is so cool it's Tricy-cooled...like Billie Eilish riding around on tiny tricycle.
      Three times for emphasis? Why no love for Empha-bro though? 😂😂😂

    • @guptahaha
      @guptahaha 3 роки тому

      @@adamkaidunnaustralia5158 ugh come on

    • @adamkaidunnaustralia5158
      @adamkaidunnaustralia5158 3 роки тому

      @@guptahaha ...no, you come on, what can't feel enough to lol, so you troll on year old posts thinking they won't reply maybe? I'm sad for you bro and happy for me knowing that i can find whimsy in the small things while you get your rocks off trashing others thinking that somehow makes you a bigger person 😢😂 hope you get a life but have a great day anyway if you dont, deuschebag 😂😎👍

    • @KUniverseY
      @KUniverseY 2 роки тому

      Do you have pdf?

  • @erictaylor5462
    @erictaylor5462 8 років тому +12

    When buying a lot of tickets, if selecting numbers randomly, how do you prevent duplication? Two tickets with the same numbers would, in effect, be paying for the same ticket twice.
    This isn't a problem when getting 5 tickets, but the chance of duplication goes up with more and more tickets.

    • @jonathanzilk6089
      @jonathanzilk6089 8 років тому

      +Eric Taylor but why isn't it both?

    • @erictaylor5462
      @erictaylor5462 8 років тому

      Jonathan Zilk
      Both what?

    • @jonathanzilk6089
      @jonathanzilk6089 8 років тому

      oh never mind. I misread your comment.

    • @DanielSmedegaardBuus
      @DanielSmedegaardBuus 8 років тому

      Two identical tickets will still give each their prize. There are always duplicates in lotteries, which is why you see multiple winners sharing a jackpot.

    • @erictaylor5462
      @erictaylor5462 8 років тому +3

      Daniel Smedegaard Buus
      No not always. Also if one person buys both duplicate tickets then they are in effect the SAME ticket. Both tickets "win" but the prize is split between them. If one person gets both halves they have gotten one whole prize.

  • @JumboJimbo100
    @JumboJimbo100 4 роки тому +1

    I not a math genius but I enjoy it. Listening to this man I get the feeling he wants to dazzel with his brilliance rather than explain what he is doing.

  • @thsscapi
    @thsscapi 7 років тому +315

    What's with all the comments about his "umms" in his talk?
    He's an established mathematician and a professor contributing to education. He doesn't have to give this talk, he didn't have to share his research and findings about this - he already wrote a whole book.
    All these "umms" means that he isn't great at giving talks, but he did. Perhaps, the next time you see him, he'll be giving great talks, and he'll still be a great mathematician. We all have to start somewhere. Give the guy a break.

    • @inveritategloria
      @inveritategloria 6 років тому +3

      Very naive observation at best. One CAN judge a good mathematician from the way he speaks.

    • @olivtrees8749
      @olivtrees8749 6 років тому +9

      Really great talk he's giving. But he really does need a voice coach. It's not the umms that are a problem really, it's the lack of support in his voice which is caused by shallow breath. It makes him gasp a little for air while he's speaking, makes his voice thinner and makes it more difficult for the audience to listen. If he doesn't address the problem- seeing as how he uses his projective voice daily as a teacher- he can eaily get vocal and throat problems many years down the road.

    • @conradlewis516
      @conradlewis516 6 років тому +16

      In Veritate Gloria - I agree that listening to someone speak about a subject says a lot about their mastery of the material. However, most people cannot retain their train of thought as well in front of an audience. For instance, I know Chemistry very well and can talk with anyone one-on-one for hours about it, but get me in front of 30 - 100 people and I get too self conscious and stop thinking as clearly as I need to to carry the talk forward. So, similar to the last statements made by thsscapi, one must work to get better at thinking clearly in front of an audience.

    • @Munku81
      @Munku81 6 років тому +20

      All these "umms" is actually a sign of quality. He doesn't need to prepare a speech and memorize is it to tell the audience about his points, he knows his topic by heart and can instantaneously compose a talk right in front of where he stands. It's like a musicican giving you a live concert instead of playing a tape.It's like a chef preparing your food right in front of you instead of getting it out the fridge.

    • @AnitaCock
      @AnitaCock 5 років тому

      i totally concur! ua-cam.com/video/xbwBUHgHVa0/v-deo.html (Michelle Obama insists that you GET UP & MOVE YOUR A$$!)

  • @Dr10Jeeps
    @Dr10Jeeps 5 років тому +4

    It would appear that the 200 or so thumbs down people are all great speakers but......not too intelligent. If you want to learn things in life sometimes you have to forget the medium and focus on the information being transmitted. Great talk. Thank you.

    • @shawnpheneghan
      @shawnpheneghan 5 років тому

      Sorry, he was tough to listen too and made a huge error at the start of his "big" example. Tough to have faith in the presentation.

  • @chrisofnottingham
    @chrisofnottingham 9 років тому +98

    Really interesting talk although I felt that in terms of narrative it kind of fizzled out toward the end.

    • @KarenSDR
      @KarenSDR 5 років тому +8

      The end was the exciting part, where he brought in the connection with projective geometry.

    • @lancebaker1374
      @lancebaker1374 5 років тому +3

      Yes, narrative is important.... what is narrative?

  • @niallfm4409
    @niallfm4409 9 років тому +3

    For the second question had it been considered that if a quick pick machine picks numbers at random, so the students may have just been trying to avoid receiving multiples of the same number?

  • @kathyyoung1774
    @kathyyoung1774 5 років тому +1

    My observation has been that when using “quick picks,” the lottery appears to be set up to “share” by giving several people the same combination, thus spreading out a large winning and creating more winners with smaller amounts. Many large totals are split among several people who admit they used “quick picks.”

  • @myginfo
    @myginfo 8 років тому +3

    in the lottery example picking by hand will also give you more chances just by removing duplicates. Because two winning ticket 167 and 167 that match the numbers still only win 6 dollars so if all 7 numbers are the same and match the jackpot you are wasting the other 6 tickets. Probably not significant in real example because it assumes you win the whole jackpot on at least two tickets, so probably not worth filling in 200,000 scant ron forms.

    • @Varksterable
      @Varksterable 5 років тому

      Not sure exactly what the maths behind the roll-down is, but picking by hand also gives the chance of choosing numbers that other people are less likely to pick, possibly giving a bigger share of the full pot.
      E.g. don't pick straight sequences. Don't pick only numbers under 31. (People have a bias towards picking birthdays) etc.

  • @jamesrogers2963
    @jamesrogers2963 4 роки тому +4

    Great math lecture! Still trying to sort our the logic of why the geometry idea works on a random drawing...

    • @packrat2113
      @packrat2113 4 роки тому

      It isn't about the geometry, it's about the possibilities.

  • @canadiannuclearman
    @canadiannuclearman 5 років тому +25

    This reminds me of the Chinese fortune cookie problem. In Canada they have a lotto called 6-49. Or in combinatronics 49 choose 6. Or 13.9 million combinations
    In many Chinese restaurants they give out fortune cookies with your bill. People would use these numbers for picking lotto numbers. Of course there was no better chance to win then using any other 6 numbers then the 6 that was on the fortune cookie. What people did not realize was the printer of the fortune cookies was lazy and they did not have a random number generator for the six numbers. So the printer printed a few thousand fortune cookies using the same 6 numbers. So purely by chance of course after many years the lotto number matching the fortune cookie came up. The lotto commission discovered many people won using the same 6 numbers and people were disappointed to share the jackpot with many others. At first the commission suspected fraud but soon found out that people were using the numbers on the fortune cookie. The commission talked to the printer and asked them to use more random numbers when printing fortune cookies. So the advise in Canada is to NOT use numbers from fortune cookies because it decreases your chance of sharing the jackpot.

    • @karljordan7114
      @karljordan7114 5 років тому +3

      Same problem with RC radios. Some manufacturers seem to make radios of the same frequency in batches. Sent to stores in batches. Bought by guys in the neighborhood from the same store. . . Then the field has four other guys on your frequency and there are a dozen frequencies not being used:(

    • @irrelevant_noob
      @irrelevant_noob 5 років тому +1

      Gary Lewis interesting story. Only one problem with it: the conclusion. It should rather be that using the fortune cookie numbers would INCREASE the chance of sharing a jackpot, i think you meant that it decreases the chance of getting an unshared jackpot. ;-)

    • @gangfire5932
      @gangfire5932 5 років тому +2

      So the optimal strategy is to collect a bunch of fortune cookies and DON'T use their numbers when playing the lottery.

    • @EricPena86
      @EricPena86 5 років тому

      Gary Lewis Good thing this guy didn't listen to you www.wcvb.com/article/fortune-cookie-means-big-fortune-for-powerball-winner-1/27736099

    • @hugo3222
      @hugo3222 4 роки тому +1

      @@gangfire5932 Yes, and DON'T use ANY numbers you did not invent yourself.
      Germany 1977: Over 200 players shared the jackpot, almost all living in the north west.
      Also Germany 1977: The same six numbers were drawn, which were drawn in the Netherlands the week before.

  • @samuelstanley2454
    @samuelstanley2454 3 роки тому +3

    What a unique way to teach math without numbers. That's like teaching the alphabet with numbers instead of letters

  • @lw1391
    @lw1391 5 років тому +2

    Can anyone explain to me how the diagram works @42:15 - I got the rest of the lecture without any problems, and understand in general what he was doing. But that visual abstraction really lost me, and he didn't explain it well at all.

  • @arnbrandy
    @arnbrandy 3 роки тому

    I just watched it because it went into autoplay, because de title sounded a bit clickbaity... And this lecture proved to be better than I could even imagine.

  • @leeorshimhoni8949
    @leeorshimhoni8949 4 роки тому +4

    You don't know that you don't know.
    What you do know, is never complete and absolute.
    Therefore, one should always assume he is ignorant.

  • @dondake3409
    @dondake3409 6 років тому +65

    wow sal's punishment is going really well!

    • @bee6418
      @bee6418 4 роки тому +2

      Benny Z literally all I was thinking 😂😂

    • @Ensource
      @Ensource 4 роки тому +2

      hahahahahaha

    • @ballsense4142
      @ballsense4142 3 роки тому +2

      I literally clicked on it thinking it was a punishment lol

    • @poeticflames
      @poeticflames 3 роки тому

      🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

  • @anch95
    @anch95 3 роки тому +2

    I'm surprised the lottery organizers are so careless to not even calculate payouts, basically the first job you should have done.
    Also, in these state lotteries, does a person matching 4 also win the prize for matching 3, 2 and 1? If not, the tables are incorrect.

  • @DelireWeb
    @DelireWeb 5 років тому +1

    At around 3:50, I understood that he was actually talking about "rational intuition" : intellectual constructs leading to science and philosophy (real philosophy, not Oprah's "feel good" psychology for lemmings). Mathematics is a "hardcore" consequence of such constructs, a tool that we've invented to aid us for such endeavor in "materialistic" science.

    • @Hippiekinkster
      @Hippiekinkster 5 років тому

      If I am reading between the lines of your post correctly, I think you would enjoy this video:
      ua-cam.com/video/QLSYo_YDVVk/v-deo.html

  • @DanicaChloe
    @DanicaChloe 5 років тому +7

    I believe the reason they controlled the numbers selected was to make finding the winning tickets easier.

    • @MrJackpots
      @MrJackpots Рік тому +1

      We need more upvotes on this answer, because it's actually the right one and this guys speech is horribly ironic given the title. Lotteries are completely random which means it doesn't matter which numbers are chosen since they all have the same probability of being the winning numbers.

  • @David-tp7sr
    @David-tp7sr 8 років тому +63

    Interesting talk, but the title is misleading.

    • @itellyouforfree7238
      @itellyouforfree7238 4 роки тому

      No, it isn't. This combinatorial design is precisely to devise a strategy to avoid losing (meaning that all your guesses of the lottery extraction were wrong). If you follow such a strategy, your bets will be "correct" in a precise sense, as opposed to being "wrong".

    • @anch95
      @anch95 3 роки тому

      @@itellyouforfree7238 Depends on how you define misleading, I think "inept" is a better word.

  • @malaypatel1118
    @malaypatel1118 4 роки тому +2

    Is it possible to get same logic and diagram representation for 4 number combination for set of 1to 20?

  • @tinmvn
    @tinmvn 7 років тому +4

    I think like this by nature all the time. People love to attempt arguing with me and always lose quickly. Especially my family they hate me.

  • @husainshaikh8724
    @husainshaikh8724 6 років тому +16

    The short story he told is called survivor bias. Veritasium covered this in a very fun way.

    • @Ensource
      @Ensource 4 роки тому

      thanks, checking that out!

  • @gwennoack
    @gwennoack 5 років тому +10

    This talk is GREAT! His passion is infective.

  • @venkateshbabu1504
    @venkateshbabu1504 4 роки тому

    Mathematics is huge. Integral. Line integral. Straight lines are integrated. Then surface integral. That's called plane integrals. Wave integral which are integral of wave type curves. Circle integral somewhat like circle inside a circle etc.

  • @AvatarJillian
    @AvatarJillian 9 років тому +35

    I LOVE MATHS. But this talk is the equivalent of when you get a penis enlargement pop up ad that takes an hour. It's just tedious and very few of the sentences are conducive to the point.

    • @wpyoga
      @wpyoga 8 років тому +10

      +Avatar Jillian Well, I think he's very engaging...

    • @uribad
      @uribad 8 років тому

      וט8םחייאאאא4654433קקטעעעע

    • @rich1051414
      @rich1051414 8 років тому +8

      He talks like my mother, spends 3 hours talking about irrelevance, then 2 minutes getting to the point. I have the overwhelming desire to inch away slowly and gently shut the door...

  • @robertschlesinger1342
    @robertschlesinger1342 5 років тому +1

    Excellent video illustrating how mathematical thinking was used to beat the Massachusetts lottery.
    Please post the letter from the Massachusetts Treasurer regarding this incident, or post where one can find this letter.

    • @robertschlesinger1342
      @robertschlesinger1342 5 років тому +1

      Note that the aforementioned 25 page Letter from the Massachusetts Treasurer is available online at several websites and archives for the State of Massachusetts. Amazing but true story involving the ingenious use of mathematical thinking.

  • @bendanonfawkes4189
    @bendanonfawkes4189 4 роки тому

    with the lottery game i used, 123 - 234 - 345 - 456 - 567 - 167 - 256. the "random" numbers chosen were 5,6,7--1,6,7--2,4,5--1,3,4--.
    Jordan talks about geometry and intersecting lines as a way to guarantee which sequence of numbers will be picked,
    based off of Jordan's triangle you have the triangle base ____ 1,2,3. right side you have \ 3,5,7 and left side u have / 1,6,7 with 4 being in the center.
    if you change the points of intersection with a random number from 1-7 u are not guaranteed the same result.
    example being, triangle base ____ 7,6,5. right side \ 5,4,3. left side / 3,2,7 and the central number being 1.
    so my question is.. why and how are the numbers at the intersecting points chosen and why cant they be random?

  • @rbrijeshy
    @rbrijeshy 6 років тому +11

    I am currently reading the book, its really awesome! This video really helped land the lottery story.

  • @BelalAlDroubi
    @BelalAlDroubi 4 роки тому +4

    amazing topic and and super interesting book.. i will buy it and read it ASAP

  • @robertschlesinger1342
    @robertschlesinger1342 4 роки тому +2

    Excellent overview of how some MIT students beat the Massachusetts Lottery, taking away $millions in profits..

  • @chickenshieee
    @chickenshieee 5 років тому +6

    His book was insanely good

  • @MrMZaccone
    @MrMZaccone 5 років тому +5

    Why didn't the state do anything about it? Because state employees are seldom M.I.T. graduates.

    • @ameremortal
      @ameremortal 5 років тому

      Edmond Dantez I smell corruption too. Shame!

    • @MrMZaccone
      @MrMZaccone 5 років тому

      @@ameremortal Heinlein's razor - Never attribute to malice what can be accounted for by simple stupidity.

    • @ameremortal
      @ameremortal 5 років тому

      Edmond Dantez I doubt the people who profit from running the lottery are stupid. People looking for a hack will not stop at anything. But for something like this to happen, you need corruption...

  • @dustinking2965
    @dustinking2965 4 роки тому +1

    Is there a Q&A for this video?

  • @ananyasrivastava5128
    @ananyasrivastava5128 4 роки тому +4

    Fasinating. Thank you for uploading.

  • @kaen888
    @kaen888 8 років тому +6

    interested to what the plane looks like with the 47 lottery numbers

  • @yves7778
    @yves7778 2 роки тому +2

    He really loves that lottery game. 😂😂

  • @ddiehl5664
    @ddiehl5664 5 років тому +9

    Fascinating! Great lecture - thank you for uploading.

  • @sejalb725
    @sejalb725 6 років тому +6

    Please don’t hate on him. It’s a misunderstanding. The title doesn’t explain that the title is the name of his book, so it basically half clickbait. That’s why he is talking about his book. The book is actually great!

    • @bastiat6865
      @bastiat6865 5 років тому

      I'd prefer the book over his lecture, until he gets some coaching on presentation.

    • @ReasonableForseeability
      @ReasonableForseeability 5 років тому

      I've never heard the expression "hate on", versus plain "hate". Where are you from?

  • @acetate909
    @acetate909 5 років тому +8

    Nerds broke the lottery. I love that story so much.

    • @TheDionysianFields
      @TheDionysianFields 4 роки тому

      Except they didn't. They made the state a lot of money.

  • @onderozenc4470
    @onderozenc4470 5 років тому +2

    The most practical way to win in the lottery is to play the same most probable numbers in each draw for a long time.

  • @granand
    @granand 3 роки тому

    Regarding the Book ..can a layman understand the maths in the books ..does it have references ..

  • @johngalt517
    @johngalt517 4 роки тому +1

    As soon as I realized he was saying "umm" I could no llonger really take in what he was saying. Good note for future

  • @darumakabu3457
    @darumakabu3457 2 роки тому

    I was thinking about to buy the book and then watched this video. Is it his book mostly talking about lottery? I thought I can get some math things that I can use in life.

  • @justinjames3028
    @justinjames3028 Рік тому

    I used to calculate the expected value of various games like keno and lottery. They were never below 1.0.
    I feel like I missed out not living in Mass and knowing this lottery existed. I feel like the roll-down would have triggered me to do the calculation on roll-down days.
    Whether or not I would have had the confidence to go out and buy a lot of tickets to make money is another matter, but my goodness there were easy millions for the taking.

  • @dlwatib
    @dlwatib 9 років тому +1

    The talk doesn't have anything to do with the title. How to eliminate risk is not at all the same concept as how not to be wrong.
    BTW: This sentence in the description is wrong no matter how you cut it: "Maths is the science of not being wrong, worked out through centuries of hard work and argument." Mathematics is a singular noun that happens to end in s, like hippopotamus. However, in the UK they teach that it is a plural and should be abbreviated maths, not math. But this sentence tries to have it both ways, with the plural s added to the abbreviation, but used like a singular noun agreeing with the singular "is the science..." Note that there is nothing mathematical about the rightness or wrongness of grammatical rules, among other subjects, so math can't possibly be "the science of not being wrong" in general.

    • @malcolmbryant
      @malcolmbryant 8 років тому +1

      +dlwatib You could have found a closer comparison without going all the way to hippopotamus. Physics is singular and not plural also. Mathematics is not taught as a plural in UK. It's just abbreviated (sensibly imho) as "maths".

  • @Sebentheyargimachine
    @Sebentheyargimachine 4 роки тому

    If you guys have any info on how to get further knowledge on combinatorial design theory like youtube videos or tutorials, anything?

  • @erictaylor5462
    @erictaylor5462 4 роки тому +1

    Hardly any of the planes that come back hardly ever have bullet holes in the pilot, therefore, pilots are hardly ever hit when the plane is shot at.
    The thing is, when the pilot ends up with bullet holes the planes hardly ever get back.

  • @peterskove3476
    @peterskove3476 4 роки тому

    Hmm, but are we not gambling on the odds of the variation? How do you calculate that? That would be the odds right?

  • @lancebaker1374
    @lancebaker1374 5 років тому +1

    At 0:43 "...about a mathematician named Abraham Wald who was a mathematician..."

    • @MrLittlelionman
      @MrLittlelionman 5 років тому

      ...... “who was a mathematician that...” he was explaining who he was and what the situation was!!!! As in........ “Lance Baker is a bell end, .......a bell end who interrupts other people’s sentences and anecdotes because he craves attention and acceptance from his peers. Go watch something more on your level i.e. Teletubbies, button moon or challenge yourself and try Johnny Ball’s “think of a number” whilst struggling to come to terms with your social inadequacies knob cheese. ❤️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿❤️

  • @loser-nobody
    @loser-nobody 8 років тому +1

    Yes but just how many *um*s can one expect to hear in 48 minutes?
    I think we hit the jackpot here!

    • @NoriMori1992
      @NoriMori1992 7 років тому

      Bertie Blue That's an unfair and false dichotomy. I was very interested and watched the whole thing. The "um"s still bothered me. The two are not mutually exclusive.

    • @loser-nobody
      @loser-nobody 7 років тому

      My comment was supposed to be a mathematical conundrum, though I can see why that wasn't perceived. It's been too long since I've seen the video but towards the end of it I started to ponder the probability of the word "um" being said in a prepared speech.
      Maybe if the speaker spent more of the 48 minutes talking in math I'd be distracted enough, like yourself, to not have any time to wander off topic.
      How unhelpful this is the first notification I get of any replies here...

  • @ElenaKomleva
    @ElenaKomleva 5 років тому +1

    WAIT!! So why does it make sense to fill in lots of tickets by hand and not automatically?? I missed that part. Did someone invent an algorithm to pick random numbers that is more likely to win a lottery than mere chance?

    • @VineyKumar
      @VineyKumar 5 років тому

      No. The idea is that every combination of tickets has the same expected value (long run average amount of money you're going to make). However, some combinations can reduce the amount of risk (variance) more than others! Essentially, the MIT students were borrowing money, so they didn't want to EVER risk losing lots of money. So what they did was come up with a particular combination of tickets that (under the cash winfall rules) essentially guaranteed that they would make money by winning lots of minor prizes every time. The side effect was that it gave them less of a chance at winning the jackpot. The average amount of money they made would be the same regardless of what tickets they picked, but the MIT handpicked ticket combinations ensured they made steady returns rather than having more of a chance to lose money in each individual drawing. Hence all the advanced maths to come up with their handpicked numbers was used to guarantee the same return with less risk of a bad outcome. Of course, todays lotteries have a negative expected value, so using a strategy like that wouldn't help you win a normal lottery anyway- but it really helps in the Cash Winfall situation.

  • @Lyanraw
    @Lyanraw Рік тому

    Super interesting. Although i think Jordan doesn't understand sterling. Dollars then corrected himself to Euros?

  • @anthonyholder3130
    @anthonyholder3130 Рік тому

    can 22 numbers work with that formula

  • @davewhiteatpsynthase
    @davewhiteatpsynthase 5 років тому +1

    Great lecture, good students, fun time spent here.......

  • @anikyt7570
    @anikyt7570 7 років тому

    isn't probability or permutation & combination help to solve lottery problem ?

  • @ddabo4460
    @ddabo4460 6 років тому +4

    Great presentation, very engaging and thought provoking , thank you RI!

  • @arpitguptag
    @arpitguptag 5 років тому

    How about getting the number as "111" in that case you have all deuce..I hope lottery example outcome is 10P7 not 10C7. Considering repetition is allowed.

    • @cleetose
      @cleetose 5 років тому

      Repetition is not allowed in the lottery, at least not in the US. So something like 111 would not be possible in his simplified lottery.

  • @85Spawn85
    @85Spawn85 2 роки тому

    Who wouldn't want to hear about the most wonderful languaje that we have!?!

  • @erictaylor5462
    @erictaylor5462 4 роки тому

    18:00 "The State knows who is winning." Not necessarily. The State has the information on who is winning, but unless someone who has the big picture looks at the information then the State doesn't know anything.
    Remember, not all of the winning tickets are coming from the same store. Everyone who plays has the same chance of winning, so you are selling winning tickets from all the stores. You need someone who knows how many winning tickets are coming from each store AND you need someone who can see that these three stores are selling a lot more tickets than the others. *THEN* that person needs to understand what these three stores have in common.

  • @shawnheneghan4110
    @shawnheneghan4110 5 років тому

    In the calculation of the expected value for the Mass Lottery, you used $2/6.8 for the contribution of winning a free ticket. But a free ticket isn't worth $2. As a first order estimate - as you point out - the ticket is worth 80 cents. Using simple feedback loop reveals the true value of a ticket as $0.59.

    • @jimmonte9826
      @jimmonte9826 5 років тому

      What a coincidence! This video was published almost 4 years ago, and yours is the only comment I saw about it. I noticed the same thing only one day later. I computed the same return of 59.09 cents per ticket.

    • @jimmonte9826
      @jimmonte9826 5 років тому

      Oops. I saw another person catch it 5 months ago. Search does not fully work in these comments.

  • @kparag01
    @kparag01 6 років тому +1

    Wald has many contribution to statistics. Thanks

  • @justinportillo242
    @justinportillo242 8 років тому +71

    This looks like Sal from Impractical Jokers!

    • @aristosxanthus514
      @aristosxanthus514 7 років тому

      sounds like Berry from the Bee movie.

    • @zenmaster7927
      @zenmaster7927 7 років тому

      Justin Portillo thinking same thing

    • @XxMrRoachxX
      @XxMrRoachxX 6 років тому +2

      omfg I was not the only one thinking that :D

    • @thushar0000
      @thushar0000 6 років тому +1

      I actually clicked on this video looking for this comment

  • @ryanvelazquez1231
    @ryanvelazquez1231 9 років тому +7

    Even with the math I know, I am sure that I know that I'm unsure of everything

    • @Hippiekinkster
      @Hippiekinkster 5 років тому

      That's a good thing. If you were sure about everything, you'd be just like Donald Trump... wrong about everything.

    • @missionpupa
      @missionpupa 5 років тому

      @@Hippiekinkster He was successful in business, then t.v. then was able to win a presidential candidate. Maybe you should think about that statement. Maybe he is only wrong in your eyes, just because he doesnt have your political view doesnt mean hes wrong.

    • @adamkaidunnaustralia5158
      @adamkaidunnaustralia5158 4 роки тому

      I used to be like that too. I did not believe in belief itself, so could not believe a I did not believe either or that it existed or did not. If you are unsure that you are sure about being unsure, my advice is to focus on increasing your information for analysis and in preparation for any possible outcome, whether it exists or not is irellevant I know now, your unsure feelings are valid but not as important as your drive and focus to pursue the best ways to learn and retain what you have learned. Learn as much as is possible instead of seeking assurance or truth primarily, and if you feel like you've reached a point where you can go no further then you can start learning how to do impossible things like being able to ignore limited ideas, where things being labelled with terms such as assurance or the lack of it are irrelevant, you don't need to be sure or believe to act on things as you might understand if you feel somewhat like I did... just act on your desires and if you find yourself desireless at some point then you'll better understand the value of feelings and actions anyway. Most will never know what it's like and will never appreciate or focus enough on just feeling happy in the moment or how their sadness or anger means they still have hope and a desire too better their circumstances some way or another. If you ever dispair then just act on basic instinct at that point, lisyen to your body and spirit more, they will guide your conciousness well if it has been trained and filled with useful infornation they can use to force you to instinctually improve your circumstances. Anyway that was my experience and journey i chose to take for years which led me to an Absolutely irrefutable discovery in the end, it was rough for a long time but it was worth the indecisive and unsure feelings all the more in the end. Until you are absolutely sure it's wise to be unsure and assume nothing and remove as much bias as possible. Although I might tell my younger self to not form too many ill concieved habitual routines if I ever speak to him again, not because I regret having had them but because I'm curious to know how things would've played out and if any signifucant differences occur lol

  • @mahuk.
    @mahuk. 4 роки тому +1

    A bit late to the party but first time watching the video. I don't feel like the example with geometry is the best for the 7x3 grid since there's an easier way with less maths. Just pick each number 3 times and you will always get at least 3 correct deuces. Each one of your numbers will be in 3 different lines, and with overlapping your numbers are in 5 lines of the 7 lines of the grid. He did the same but in different order, so as long as you don't pick a number 4 or more times you can't lose in this game.
    1 2 3
    2 3 4
    3 4 5
    4 5 6 2
    deuce
    5 6 7 6
    jackpot
    6 7 1 2
    deuce
    7 1 2
    1 2 3
    2 3 4
    3 4 5
    4 5 6
    5 6 7 2
    deuce
    6 7 1 2
    deuce
    7 1 2 2
    deuce
    1 2 3
    2 3 4 2
    deuce
    3 4 5 2
    deuce
    4 5 6 2
    deuce
    5 6 7
    6 7 1
    7 1 2
    1 2 3 2
    deuce
    2 3 4 2
    deuce
    3 4 5 2
    deuce
    4 5 6
    5 6 7
    6 7 1
    7 1 2
    I don't know if this applies to the original lottery with more numbers, but for the small one you really don't need geometry.

  • @lurker1973
    @lurker1973 7 років тому +2

    This is the most happy mathematician in the world. I can't even imagine this guy gets ever saddened. I hope he doesn't do this during sex or on a funeral.

  • @antikokalis
    @antikokalis 6 років тому +1

    Can one of the people that didn't find him annoying explain to me the last part cause i couldn't make it to the end. Fell asleep yesterday but now i still want to know the answer

  • @davidjames1684
    @davidjames1684 5 років тому +1

    Expected, value IS what one would expect, however on average. So why not just use the term average expected value instead?

  • @TheAperunk
    @TheAperunk 8 років тому +48

    The subtitles are either computer generated or done by an extremely drunk person.
    While not being of much help, they are amusing.

    • @TheRoyalInstitution
      @TheRoyalInstitution  8 років тому +53

      These are indeed UA-cam's auto generated subtitles. We are planning to transcribe all of our videos so that the subtitles would actually be useful rather than a strange experience in surrealist art. Most of our short videos are now transcribed but we don't currently have the resources to finish the longer ones! If you find time to lend a hand then it would be much appreciated - ua-cam.com/users/timedtext_video?v=kZTKuMBJP7Y&ref=share

    • @michealroth120800
      @michealroth120800 7 років тому +2

      Math is the universal language, if you didn't have it, you wouldn't have the words on your screen, or the computer itself XD

    • @nicewhenearnedrudemostlyel489
      @nicewhenearnedrudemostlyel489 6 років тому +4

      "universal human language"... You don't know what language the universe speaks.

    • @AnitaCock
      @AnitaCock 5 років тому

      @@nicewhenearnedrudemostlyel489 , BINARY! The TRUE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE! ua-cam.com/video/OD7AkvTV0dM/v-deo.html Or rather, FROM THE FUTURE!!! ua-cam.com/video/sRYl1WAIitE/v-deo.html

  • @alanhaisley4870
    @alanhaisley4870 5 років тому +1

    Obviously this is a case of selling below cost and making it up on the volume. :)

  • @Ozgipsy
    @Ozgipsy Рік тому

    Best math anecdote ever.

  • @cantavoidtrite
    @cantavoidtrite 4 роки тому

    This was great. Where is the Q & A?

  • @jorgenorberto293
    @jorgenorberto293 5 років тому

    That moment at 24:25 ... Made me laugh. "...You are the house!!"

  • @kiddiescripterkiller
    @kiddiescripterkiller 5 років тому

    One of the other speakers used the airplane story... can't remember the other one... watched too many so far...

  • @venkateshbabu5623
    @venkateshbabu5623 6 років тому +1

    All numbers should be viewed as spins. No spin zero positive spin 1 and negative spin minus 1. And sum of all positive is inverted negative 12. All numbers are powers of some other.

    • @venkateshbabu5623
      @venkateshbabu5623 6 років тому +1

      Twelve negative spins when put on an inverter gives quantum leap.

    • @venkateshbabu5623
      @venkateshbabu5623 6 років тому +1

      That's the reason 144 is critical because it holds the power.

    • @venkateshbabu5623
      @venkateshbabu5623 6 років тому +1

      That is the total number of possible universes.

    • @mikejames2934
      @mikejames2934 6 років тому

      Venkatesh babu ii

    • @Hippiekinkster
      @Hippiekinkster 5 років тому

      @@mikejames2934 - you are wrong. -1. (slow people: double entendre alert)

  • @agcwall
    @agcwall 5 років тому

    You don't need any weird geometry to hedge your bets on the lottery tickets, this overcomplicates things dramatically. You just need to avoid picking the same numbers too much and not picking other numbers enough. As a programmer, I find this natural... as you generate tickets, just keep track of how many times you've picked each number, and always pick from the least-picked ones.

    • @alfredhitchcock45
      @alfredhitchcock45 5 років тому

      He just wants to make things complicated

    • @justinjames3028
      @justinjames3028 Рік тому

      I feel like you wouldn't have to buy hundreds of thousands of tickets to get into a position where the standard deviation around the expected value was acceptably low - especially if taking the long-term approach.

  • @robertschlesinger1342
    @robertschlesinger1342 5 років тому +2

    Great story about Abraham Wald, and great video.

  • @historion
    @historion 3 роки тому

    Not what I expected from the title but fun and interesting... as expected from someone talking about how to win the lottery jackpot.

  • @AbdulRehman-nu2pb
    @AbdulRehman-nu2pb 4 роки тому +7

    Every one who's watching is either too young or too old!!!

  • @sanfordmichelojr7350
    @sanfordmichelojr7350 2 роки тому

    His voice sounds like Sal Khan from Khan Academy

  • @matchedimpedance
    @matchedimpedance Рік тому

    The title of his book is wrong, grammatically. It says "How Not to Be Wrong" when it means "How to Be Not Wrong". Those are not the same.

  • @SiggiNebel
    @SiggiNebel 8 років тому +4

    The airplane story is a kind of variant of the steel helmet paradox: after the introduction of steel helmets in WWI the number of soldiers with head injuries rose, because because more soldiers now survived such injuries.

    • @kathyyoung1774
      @kathyyoung1774 5 років тому

      SiggiNebel Right. And there was no mention of protecting the pilot, which is most important of all.

  • @ravinsharma2501
    @ravinsharma2501 9 років тому +2

    I forgot how to program after 5 minute of listening to him speak. His pitch sliced through my memory.

  • @RonDAvilar
    @RonDAvilar 9 років тому +1

    Interesting stuff

  • @oliverizzard8751
    @oliverizzard8751 2 роки тому

    Yeah but when they say “why do you always have to be right” then you're wrong anyway.

  • @araunapalm
    @araunapalm 5 років тому +3

    Lovely stories. Making logic and math interesting. He knows and loves his subject. The negative comments must be some form of jealousy....

    • @ReasonableForseeability
      @ReasonableForseeability 5 років тому

      "Must be..."
      Bad logic or plain lack of imagination?
      Perhaps I'm jealous too - I'll never be able to say UM as often or as well as he.

    • @araunapalm
      @araunapalm 5 років тому

      @@ReasonableForseeability mathematics is a language which one can explain things which is not possible to write in other languages. It is not reality but it can bring one closer to truth by analyses. Helps to get some clarity.

  • @raultejedor
    @raultejedor 5 років тому +1

    Probability of a randomly chosen sentence containing at least two ums?