Timeline for Does the drunk man fall off the cliff? (a random walk problem)
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
26 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 27 at 8:11 | history | unprotected | Will.Octagon.Gibson | ||
| Oct 26, 2015 at 9:12 | answer | added | DanielSank | timeline score: 7 | |
| Jun 27, 2015 at 7:28 | comment | added | DanielSank | @Anthony I think I understand your question now. Why not post it as a question on Math.SE? | |
| Jun 27, 2015 at 7:14 | comment | added | DanielSank | @Anthony can you be more explicit? When you say "zero probability" do you mean probability of falling off or of not falling off? In any case, I think the comment parent to this one addresses a different issue than three comments up, so I'm not sure what you're asking. | |
| Jun 27, 2015 at 5:31 | comment | added | user13598 | Well then how do we have zero probability when there are infinite sequences that do, in fact, not fall off the cliff? | |
| Jun 27, 2015 at 2:28 | comment | added | DanielSank | @Anthony I think I know what you mean but I don't see how it applies here. The set of every (possibly infinite!) sequence of steps is countable. | |
| Jun 27, 2015 at 1:18 | comment | added | user13598 | A question always of interest to me in these contexts... Zero probability still means there can be a countable collection of trajectories for which the drunkard does not fall off the cliff, correct? So at what point in these derivations do we 'handle', in some sense, these solutions? Where do these countably many walks 'go'? | |
| May 3, 2015 at 12:35 | history | protected | leoll2 | ||
| Apr 23, 2015 at 15:33 | answer | added | Tommy | timeline score: 0 | |
| Feb 18, 2015 at 14:46 | comment | added | KSmarts | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambler's_ruin | |
| Feb 18, 2015 at 13:36 | answer | added | Phil M Jones | timeline score: 6 | |
| Jan 1, 2015 at 19:28 | vote | accept | DanielSank | ||
| Jan 1, 2015 at 19:26 | vote | accept | DanielSank | ||
| Jan 1, 2015 at 19:26 | |||||
| Dec 27, 2014 at 11:42 | comment | added | Tuncay Göncüoğlu | I would think that the probability would be near something like f(p) = (1/2)^p for first few steps and then diverge due to distance, but I also would say that the drunken man would NOT step indefinitely and will eventually sober up. | |
| Dec 27, 2014 at 2:12 | answer | added | Andy Dent | timeline score: 0 | |
| S Dec 27, 2014 at 1:05 | history | suggested | David Richerby | CC BY-SA 3.0 | Replaced a confusing occurrence of the word "left" with "allowed" (the previous paragraph was about left and right, so starting the next sentence with "If left" made it hard to parse) |
| Dec 27, 2014 at 0:54 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S Dec 27, 2014 at 1:05 | |||||
| Dec 26, 2014 at 19:42 | answer | added | Julian Rosen | timeline score: 26 | |
| Dec 26, 2014 at 7:06 | answer | added | John Dvorak | timeline score: 25 | |
| Dec 26, 2014 at 6:06 | answer | added | xnor | timeline score: 19 | |
| Dec 26, 2014 at 4:32 | history | edited | DanielSank | CC BY-SA 3.0 | Added math note |
| Dec 25, 2014 at 22:15 | comment | added | Lopsy | IMO it has enough of an "aha!" moment that it fits equally well here. However, the solution I know needs a small technical aside showing that for $p < 1/2$, the probability is not 1. | |
| Dec 25, 2014 at 22:00 | comment | added | Julian Rosen | I'm not necessarily opposed to having this question here, but it might be a better fit at Mathematics | |
| Dec 25, 2014 at 21:08 | review | First posts | |||
| Dec 26, 2014 at 1:50 | |||||
| Dec 25, 2014 at 21:05 | comment | added | DanielSank | When I first solved this problem I used a technique known mostly to mathematicians and physicists. However, I later learned that a clever sixth grade student could solve it. | |
| Dec 25, 2014 at 21:04 | history | asked | DanielSank | CC BY-SA 3.0 |