Kepler's marriage problem
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understandinguncertainty.org was produced by the Winton programme for the public understanding of risk based in the Statistical Laboratory in the University of Cambridge. The aim was to help improve the way that uncertainty and risk are discussed in society, and show how probability and statistics can be both useful and entertaining.
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Recently, I remembered about a history book that I had read around 10 years ago. In the book there was this story about a scientist who had a strange way to chose a bride, but I couldn't remember any more details. Yesterday, I borrowed a book at random from the university library on the subject of optimization. In page 4 of the book there was a paragraph referring to the very same story, now dealt with as a mathematical optimization problem named the secretary problem. The scientist is nobody but the famous astronomer Johannes Kepler.
Date submitted:Fri, 27 Apr 2012 15:47:39 +0000Coincidence ID:6296
