Seminar Details
2015-10-06 (14:00) : "Mathemagics" : when Mandelbrot sets win you big money at Poker
At Euler building (A002)
Organized by Mathematical Engineering
Speaker :
Vande Kerckhove, Corentin
Abstract :
We have all been amazed, at some point, by a trick of cards performed by a magician. In this talk, we will investigate card tricks based on mathematical bases rather than on the agility of the performer. Perhaps the most common card tricks involve particular "shuffling" of a deck of cards. Magician, and some poker player, are interested in shuffles that conserve some structure, to be leveraged during the trick.
This talk focuses on one of the most common shuffles, known as the "riffle shuffle". We derive some properties known as the Gilbreath Principles, and highlight similarities between the deck structure after shuffling and the fractal pictures. As Arthur C. Clarke said "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." We will apply the saying by showing how the concepts mentioned above allow to create a wonderful card trick, giving you or a friend a winning hand at poker.
Journal club based on the work of the two mathematicians Persi Diaconis and Ron Graham.