Push-Penny: Are you a Random Player?

Several measures of “success” for a simple game are discussed. Comparisons between players, and between a player and a simulation, can be made in several ways.     

Composing Mozart Variations with Dice

This article describes a musical game devised by W.A. Mozart in which dice are used to select randomly from a number of possible arrangements of each bar in a Viennese minuet.     

Exploring students' intuitive ideas of randomness using an iPod shuffle activity

This article presents an activity that engages students in considering characteristics of a random sequence, in this case, a randomly generated playlist of songs using the iPod shuffle feature. Students examine simulated sequences of randomly generated songs from a small music library in order to identify characteristics that are used to develop rules that they then apply to judge whether three suspicious lists are likely to be nonrandom.     

A data generating review that bops,twists and pulls at misconceptions

Statistics is an integral part of the K–12 mathematics curriculum (age 5–18). Naturally, students construct misconceptions of what they learn. This article discusses The Bop It^© Challenge, a review activity assesses student understanding and reveals their misundertandings of statistical concepts.     

下荆江蜿蜒河道分形弯曲的物理机制探讨——Ⅱ．随机性

河流水沙时间序列是随机过程,为探讨它们对蜿蜒河流分形结构形成和演变的影响,分析计算了这些随机过程的数值特征和涨落规律。研究发现,这些随机过程的涨落及二阶矩随时间变化的幂律振荡在下荆江这类蜿蜒河流分形结构的形成和演变中具有重要的调制作用。     

Simulation in the Simple Linear Regression Model

This article presents an activity which simulates the linear regression model in order to verify the probabilistic behaviour of the resulting least‐squares statistics in practice.     

Decoding codewords: statistical analysis of a newspaper puzzle

This article presents various statistical analyses of a type of word puzzle common in English newspapers.     

The elusive concept of innovation for Schumpeter,Marschak and the early econometricians

The modern concept of innovation is a crucial part of the analysis of capitalism as an adaptive system, and it is due to Schumpeter. Consequently, Schumpeter's role as a “prophet of innovation” has been rightly emphasized. This paper contributes to that history presenting some of the difficulties Schumpeter suffered as a formal representation of innovation was proposed by his fellow econometricians, as proved by the case of one of such dialogs, that with Jacob Marschak, at the time the director of the Cowles Commission and vice-president and then president of the Econometric Society. It is shown how Schumpeter elaborated his concepts of endogenous innovation and of industrial mutation as contrasted to the mechanical view of his fellow econometricians. Finally, the paper emphasizes the changes of the concept of randomness through the debate.     

What Einstein meant when he said “God does not play dice …”

We analyze Einstein’s views on God and religion, and his views on Quantum Mechanics. Vasant Natarajan is at the Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science. His research interests are in high-resolution laser spectroscopy, optical frequency measurement, and use of laser-cooled atoms to search for time-reversal violation in the laws of physics. He serves on the Editorial board of Resonance and contributes regularly to the journal. He considers himself an Ekalavya-type shishya to his guru Einstein. A picture of Einstein hangs above his chair. This article first appeared in ‘Backstage’ — a newsletter published to mark the theatre festival ‘Moitree’ organized by Mukhosh, a Bangalore-based Bengali theatre group.     

Turning Points in Random Permutations

The mean and variance of the number of turning points in random permutations are evaluated. These results are applied to a test of randomness of fluctuations.