4 ms·

Hmm... one of my professors who was a collaborator of Erdos is also a bridge player. Was Erdos any good at bridge?

ggm 6y ago
Dunno. Haven't seen the guy since 1988. I would suspect he was, goes with the territory.
boomboomsubban 6y ago
So searching "Erdos bridge" reveals that Ivan Erdos was on the American bridge team in the 60's. Changing it to "Erdős contract bridge" shows it is mentioned in the book "The Mathematics of Paul Erdős II" but the section is paywalled. Ask your professor, it could make for an interesting bit of his life that would otherwise be lost.
- sva_ 6y ago
  > In those years I often visited Erdos at the summer house of the Academy in Mcitrahciza (a summer resort in the mountains), where he used to spend part of the summer with his mother. The place was reserved for members of the Academy and I was still young, so I had to find a place in the village for a couple of days. But I did get decently fed in the summer house during the day time. Usually there were other visitors or regular inhabitants to also work with Paul, and he would do this simultaneously. He led his usual life there, alternately proving, conjecturing, playing chess, ping pong, bridge, or walking to mountain tops. It was his habit to stop playing abruptly, when the rest of us were warming up to the game, and to return to work. In those days he went to bed around ten o-clock, but he woke up early, between four or five in the morning, so it was actually safer for me not to be living too close. > On the Isolation of a Common Secret > Summary. Two parties are said to "share a secret" if there is a question to which only they know the answer. Since possession of a shared secret allows them to communicate a bit between them over an open channel without revealing the value of the bit, shared secrets are fundamental in cryptology. [...] > [...] (1) The game of bridge: Here two partners wish to communicate in private, but the rules of the game require that all communication be done by legal bids and plays, about which there may be no prior private understandings. Thus, there are initially no shared secrets. But there is private information: each player knows, by virtue of looking at his own hand, 13 cards that do not belong to his partner. Can they make use of this information to communicate in private?

ggm 6y ago

Dunno. Haven't seen the guy since 1988. I would suspect he was, goes with the territory.

So searching "Erdos bridge" reveals that Ivan Erdos was on the American bridge team in the 60's. Changing it to "Erdős contract bridge" shows it is mentioned in the book "The Mathematics of Paul Erdős II" but the section is paywalled. Ask your professor, it could make for an interesting bit of his life that would otherwise be lost.

sva_ 6y ago
> In those years I often visited Erdos at the summer house of the Academy in Mcitrahciza (a summer resort in the mountains), where he used to spend part of the summer with his mother. The place was reserved for members of the Academy and I was still young, so I had to find a place in the village for a couple of days. But I did get decently fed in the summer house during the day time. Usually there were other visitors or regular inhabitants to also work with Paul, and he would do this simultaneously. He led his usual life there, alternately proving, conjecturing, playing chess, ping pong, bridge, or walking to mountain tops. It was his habit to stop playing abruptly, when the rest of us were warming up to the game, and to return to work. In those days he went to bed around ten o-clock, but he woke up early, between four or five in the morning, so it was actually safer for me not to be living too close. > On the Isolation of a Common Secret > Summary. Two parties are said to "share a secret" if there is a question to which only they know the answer. Since possession of a shared secret allows them to communicate a bit between them over an open channel without revealing the value of the bit, shared secrets are fundamental in cryptology. [...] > [...] (1) The game of bridge: Here two partners wish to communicate in private, but the rules of the game require that all communication be done by legal bids and plays, about which there may be no prior private understandings. Thus, there are initially no shared secrets. But there is private information: each player knows, by virtue of looking at his own hand, 13 cards that do not belong to his partner. Can they make use of this information to communicate in private?