Vsauce2 | This Is NOT 50/50 @Vsauce2 | Uploaded 4 years ago | Updated 1 hour ago
The easiest fair games depend on equal, binary outcomes like flipping a coin or drawing a playing card that can only be either red or black. If a game depends on both players choosing an equally-probable outcome, how can one player have a massive advantage over the other?
Welcome to the Humble-Nishiyama Randomness Game, a variant of Walter Penney’s classic demonstration of the power of non-transitivity in simple games. In a straightforward transitive situation, A beats B and B beats C -- which means A beats C, too. But if A beats B, B beats C, and C beats A… we’ve gone non-transitive just like Rock, Paper, Scissors. By jumping into the non-transitive game loop at the most advantageous point, Player 2 can become an overwhelming favorite every time. It looks like dumb luck, but it’s really just smart math.
*** SOURCES ***
“Penney Ante: Counterintuitive Probabilities in Coin Tossing,” by RS Nickerson: http://www.math.unl.edu/~sdunbar1/ProbabilityTheory/BackgroundPapers/Penney%20ante/PenneyAnte_CounterintuitiveProbabilities.pdf
“Humble-Nishiyama Randomness Game - A New Variation on Penney's Coin Game,” by Steve Humble and Yutaka Nishiyama: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.177.1176
"Probability of a tossed coin landing on edge,” by Daniel B. Murray and Scott W. Teare: journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevE.48.2547
"Antibiotic-mediated antagonism leads to a bacterial game of rock–paper–scissors in vivo,” by Benjamin C. Kirkup & Margaret A. Riley: nature.com/articles/nature02429
*** LINKS ***
Vsauce2 Links
Twitter: twitter.com/VsauceTwo
Facebook: facebook.com/VsauceTwo
Hosted and Produced by Kevin Lieber
Instagram: http://instagram.com/kevlieber
Twitter: twitter.com/kevinlieber
Podcast: youtube.com/thecreateunknown
Research And Writing by Matthew Tabor
twitter.com/TaborTCU
Editing by AspectScience
youtube.com/channel/UCyi06SeKkiwoAzFVmQtDtfg
Huge Thanks To Paula Lieber
etsy.com/shop/Craftality
Get Vsauce's favorite science and math toys delivered to your door!
curiositybox.com
Select Music By Jake Chudnow: http://www.youtube.com/user/JakeChudnow
#education #vsauce2
The easiest fair games depend on equal, binary outcomes like flipping a coin or drawing a playing card that can only be either red or black. If a game depends on both players choosing an equally-probable outcome, how can one player have a massive advantage over the other?
Welcome to the Humble-Nishiyama Randomness Game, a variant of Walter Penney’s classic demonstration of the power of non-transitivity in simple games. In a straightforward transitive situation, A beats B and B beats C -- which means A beats C, too. But if A beats B, B beats C, and C beats A… we’ve gone non-transitive just like Rock, Paper, Scissors. By jumping into the non-transitive game loop at the most advantageous point, Player 2 can become an overwhelming favorite every time. It looks like dumb luck, but it’s really just smart math.
*** SOURCES ***
“Penney Ante: Counterintuitive Probabilities in Coin Tossing,” by RS Nickerson: http://www.math.unl.edu/~sdunbar1/ProbabilityTheory/BackgroundPapers/Penney%20ante/PenneyAnte_CounterintuitiveProbabilities.pdf
“Humble-Nishiyama Randomness Game - A New Variation on Penney's Coin Game,” by Steve Humble and Yutaka Nishiyama: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.177.1176
"Probability of a tossed coin landing on edge,” by Daniel B. Murray and Scott W. Teare: journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevE.48.2547
"Antibiotic-mediated antagonism leads to a bacterial game of rock–paper–scissors in vivo,” by Benjamin C. Kirkup & Margaret A. Riley: nature.com/articles/nature02429
*** LINKS ***
Vsauce2 Links
Twitter: twitter.com/VsauceTwo
Facebook: facebook.com/VsauceTwo
Hosted and Produced by Kevin Lieber
Instagram: http://instagram.com/kevlieber
Twitter: twitter.com/kevinlieber
Podcast: youtube.com/thecreateunknown
Research And Writing by Matthew Tabor
twitter.com/TaborTCU
Editing by AspectScience
youtube.com/channel/UCyi06SeKkiwoAzFVmQtDtfg
Huge Thanks To Paula Lieber
etsy.com/shop/Craftality
Get Vsauce's favorite science and math toys delivered to your door!
curiositybox.com
Select Music By Jake Chudnow: http://www.youtube.com/user/JakeChudnow
#education #vsauce2
