Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can add https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancake_sorting
And https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_cake-cutting
Let's not forget https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti_sort
Potato paradox
61–70 of 142 posts
Re: Potato paradox
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you add water to the potato infinitely (hypothetically speaking), does the water percentage approach 100%? And also, does the solid percentage approach 0%?
No. You won't have a potato anymore. But you won't have water anymore either. You'll have a black hole.
Is potato-blackhole distinguishable from same mass water black-hole?
Re: Potato paradox
#63A much more important example of this than "martian potatoes" is uranium enrichment. Natural uranium is ~1% U235; bombs need 90+% U235. So when you've enriched it from 1% to 2% it doesn't seem like you've made a lot of progress towards 90. If instead of enriching U235 you think of it as eliminating U238, though, then you've done half of the work.
> then you've done half of the work.
So that's why the last 20% takes 80% of the time.
Re: Potato paradox
#64Neat. This bumps up my list of food-related maths from 3 to 4. So far: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ham_sandwich_theorem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pizza_theorem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Layer_cake_representation
The Squeeze Theorem in calculus [1] is also known as the "Sandwich Theorem".
Re: Potato paradox
#65I don't think a simple algebra problem should be called a paradox.
Re: Potato paradox
#66The solution is much more intuitive if you use odds ratios instead of percentage probabilities. You go from a 99:1 ratio to a 98:2 (or 49:1) ratio.
In other words, it's another way of phrasing that it takes twice as much evidence to be 99% sure as it is to be 98% sure. Or that it's twice as hard to have 99% uptime than 98%.
Re: Potato paradox
#67That's not interesting at all. How do I downvote submissions?
Re: Potato paradox
#68q:100 people are seated in a room. 99% of them are enginners and 1% managers. How many engineers should leave the room to make it 98% enginners and 2% managers? a:50
Its better to leave the "and 2% managers" part to make it a little complicated ;)
Re: Potato paradox
#69q:100 people are seated in a room. 99% of them are enginners and 1% managers. How many engineers should leave the room to make it 98% enginners and 2% managers? a:50
If you phrase it that way, the question becomes easy to answer, because you start looking at the engineers, subtract one, look back at the managers an instantly realize, that much more would have to go.
With the potatoes, you imagine a crumbled potato. You have in mind how slow a potato would lose water and how much weight it would retain, which is of course the wrong way to look at the problem.
Re: Potato paradox
#70I don't think a simple algebra problem should be called a paradox.
I think it's called a paradox (rightly), because it's not immediately intuitive for most people.