Monthly Archives: August 2015

The birthday candle problem: solution

Posted on August 25, 2015 by Brent

Recall the birthday candle problem I wrote about in a previous post: A birthday cake has lit candles. At each step you pick a number uniformly at random and blow out candles. If any candles remain lit, the process repeats … Continue reading →

Posted in combinatorics, probability, solutions | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Cosmic Call at The Universe of Discourse

Posted on August 19, 2015 by Brent

I’ve really been enjoying a series of posts by Mark Dominus on his blog, The Universe of Discourse. The Cosmic Call was a series of radio messages sent in 1999 and 2003 aimed at various nearby stars (in case there … Continue reading →

Posted in links | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

The birthday candle problem

Posted on August 7, 2015 by Brent

After a 1.5-month epic journey1, I am finally settling into my new position at Hendrix College. Here’s a fun problem I just heard from my new colleage Mark Goadrich: A birthday cake has lit candles. At each step you pick … Continue reading →

Posted in challenges, combinatorics, probability | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments