Tag Math

All natural numbers are interesting

A proof.

#math #curiosity

Shannon Paper

Claude Shannon’s A mathematical theory of communication is an oft cited classic in information theory. Let’s dive in and try to tease apart the “why”s that are often overlooked when people build on top of the introduced theory. They are definitely things that I didn’t consider to be obvious without the benefit of reading the paper.

#Math

Deriving the Poisson Distribution

Where does the Poisson Distribution come from? A little bit of research1 tells us that the distribution was originally introduced by Abraham de Moivre in 1710 in an article called “On the Measurement of Chance, or, on the Probability of Events in Games Depending Upon Fortuitous Chance” 2 (not the original title). A few steps that will get us there is laid out below. Let’s start with a simple “rate” problem.

#Math

The Comcast Technician Problem

Given a set of tasks, incentives are often aligned towards dropping a task rather than allowing for perpetual accretion of delays.

#Math