Happy New Year
Sorry for the delay but, ahem, I got a late start this morning. What did J. Jagger and C. Shannon determine to do with a wooden wheel that brought them great notoriety?
Happy New Year
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Re: Happy New Year
#2Re: Happy New Year
Beat it!
Re: Happy New Year
#3Re: Happy New Year , Answer
They did indeed. Bill got the answer. Joseph Jagger broke the bank at Monte Carlo in the late 1800�s by noticing trends in the way the pill bounced on the roulette wheel. He took them for over a million of today's dollars. Claude Shannon,(died in 2001) a heavy duty scientist (logic, numbers theory, communications) used his math genius with several others like Ed Thorpe at MIT to come up with probabilities, algorithms, card counting, and also designed a primitive by today's standards wearable computer to accomplish the same purpose. In the 1940�s and 1950�s together Thorpe and Shannon and others mathematically minimized gambler�s risk by use of what is called the Kelly Criterion. Both of the people beat the roulette wheel (as well as stock market in Shannon�s case). There is some information about both Jagger and Shannon on Wikipedia. There is also a book available on the Kelly Criteria.
Re: Happy New Year
#4Re: Happy New Year , Answer
Just my two cents�.
Shannon was the first to apply Boolean algebra to the logic of switching circuits, a very important step in computer development.
Thorpe presented a paper on blackjack card counting and was backed by a money man and along with card shark the hit the Nevada casinos. His book �Beat the dealer� was interesting and a fun read. I had a couple of buddies in the sixties that were using Thorp�s system against a double-deck open-face table and when the house determined what they were doing, they were told to leave�casinos are private not public places and they don�t have to play with you!