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When told of this, Paul Erdos, one of the leading mathematicians of the 20th century, said, "That's impossible." Then, when presented with a formal mathematical
by vinutheraj 17y ago
When told of this, Paul Erdos, one of the leading mathematicians of the 20th century, said, "That's impossible." Then, when presented with a formal mathematical proof of the correct answer, he still didn't believe it and grew angry. Only after a colleague arranged for a computer simulation in which Erdos watched hundreds of trials that came out 2-to-1 in favor of switching did Erdos concede that he was wrong.
Can somebody please verify this from source, seriously !!
- michael_dorfman 17y agoSure. It's the main subject of Chapter 6 of "The Man Who Loved Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdős and the Search for Mathematical Truth", by Paul Hoffman. He quotes Andrew Vázsonyi (who introduced the problem to Erdős) and Ronald Graham (who provided the proof that finally convinced Erdős).
- slackenerny 17y agohttp://books.google.com/books?dq=ron+graham+1998+erdos+bayes&id=Doc_ErUTDcAC&pg=PA130 http://books.google.com/books?dq=ron+graham+1998+erdos+bayes...