When we were studying network structures and connectivity of networks we briefly discussed the idea of how the world can be seen as a very small place in terms of how connected the majority of the earth’s population. The most famous application of this idea is the game six degrees of Kevin […]

The internet is an incredibly intricate mesh of nodes with several central nervous centers that deliver media, knowledge, and communications around the world at nearly the speed of light. Complex algorithms are used to determine how to get from node A to node B quickly and efficiently, but this “giant network” is […]

Gale and Shapley’s stable marriage problem, dating back to 1962, is an extension to the perfect matching concept that we have discussed in class.

The problem is as follows:  If there are n men and n women (and we assume heterosexual marriages), is there a way for each person to marry one other person such that […]

Game Theory Models Animal Behavior
Rich Pickings Near Large Communal Roosts Favor ‘Gang’ Foraging by Juvenile Common Ravens, Corvus corax
We have studied how game theory affects human behavior on relatively simple games, but applying it to evolutionary behavior is something (so far) left out of the class.
Researchers from England have come up with a mathematical model […]

As we discussed in class, there are different auction types than the four that were discussed and analyzed. One of these other types is a dollar auction. A dollar auction is where an auctioneer auctions off a dollar to the highest bidder who pays whatever he bid on the item, however what distinguishes this from […]

According to Braess’s Paradox, adding extra capacity to a network does not necessarily make users of that network better off. The example featuring a transportation network shown in class proved this. While in a statistics class, I came across another paradox that describes a similar phenomenon. Simpson’s Paradox shows that adding an […]

“Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city,1” quipped comedian George Burns.  On a more serious note, James Fowler of the University of California, San Diego and Nicholas Christakis of Harvard University studied the dynamic spread of happiness in a large social network and published their research in […]

After learning the basics of game theory, and its wide range of applications, I began researching about mathematicians who developed the basics for these theories. While men such as John von Neumann, John Harsanyi, Schelling, among others, are notable for their contributions to this field, John Nash occupies the center position in popular culture because […]

The U.S. Presidential election is arguably the biggest “game” observed and scrutinized by the eyes of the worldwide population. The strategic moves that each presidential candidate makes are particularly interesting because of the electoral voting system in which the presidential candidates only need to amass most votes in each state to win the electoral […]

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE7D81530F936A15751C1A966958260&sec=&spon=
This article from the NY Times website discusses the effects of closing 42nd Street in New York City (one of the most congested streets in the city) for Earth Day. People expected this to cause major traffic trouble, but the flow of traffic actually improved. It explains that this is actually a real life example […]