The Math Behind Ticket Bargains

#1

Post by bjpless » Thu, Apr 26, 2012, 6:48 PM UTC

The Math Behind Ticket Bargains
seatgeek.com

Re: The Math Behind Ticket Bargains

#2

Post by Bartlet » Thu, Apr 26, 2012, 7:10 PM UTC

What exactly is being shown in the animation/slideshow? You said its iterating and maximizing the MLE, but doesn't that just mean you're maximizing a single number? How can that iteration generate an entire heatmap?

Re: The Math Behind Ticket Bargains

#3

Post by copious » Thu, Apr 26, 2012, 7:20 PM UTC

Cool stuff. Out of curiosity, what are you using to embed Latex in a blog post like that?

Re: The Math Behind Ticket Bargains

#4

Post by steverit » Thu, Apr 26, 2012, 8:00 PM UTC

Bartlet wrote: post #2

What exactly is being shown in the animation/slideshow? You said its iterating and maximizing the MLE, but doesn't that just mean you're maximizing a single number? How can that iteration generate an entire heatmap?

The likelihood itself is a single number, but the algorithm is maximizing the likelihood based on a vector of 993 parameters representing the quality of a seat. Each x,y coordinate represents a seat in the ballpark, and each seat is mapped to one of those 993 values. The heatmap evolves as the vector approaches maximum likelihood.

Re: The Math Behind Ticket Bargains

#5

Post by steverit » Thu, Apr 26, 2012, 8:06 PM UTC

copious wrote: post #3

Cool stuff. Out of curiosity, what are you using to embed Latex in a blog post like that?

Thanks! We used a WordPress Plugin called LaTeX for WordPress. I believe it uses MathJax under the hood. http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/latex/