probability

(Newser) - The old adage goes that if you give an army of chimpanzees typewriters, one will eventually write the complete works of William Shakespeare by chance. The so-called infinite monkey theorem is a thought experiment meant to demonstrate that events with a non-zero probability will occur over infinite time. In other...

(Newser) - Don't understand probability? Try asking a 2-year-old. A study suggests they have an instinctive understanding of the ideas involved, and that a little observation goes a long way. Researchers at the University of Washington showed 32 toddlers a machine featuring a pair of blocks and a platform, Quartz reports....

(Newser) - A computer programmer testing the old theory that monkeys randomly mashing keyboards will eventually produce the complete works of Shakespeare says his virtual monkeys are nearly done with the Bard. Jesse Anderson—who keeps a running total on his blog —calculates that, in the "largest work ever randomly"...

(Newser) - What's the not-so-simple secret of playing poker? Quantum physics, finds NPR . It turns out that several top players are physicists—and that's no fluke. Physicists understand probability, statistics, and modeling. "I mean—when you think about it—they build models of the world," says Jennifer Ouellette, author of...