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diff --git a/content/posts/2021-11-11-the-birthday-paradox.md b/content/posts/2021-11-11-the-birthday-paradox.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..df1abd6 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/posts/2021-11-11-the-birthday-paradox.md @@ -0,0 +1,56 @@ +--- +slug: the-birthday-paradox +title: "The Birthday Paradox" +date: "2021-11-11T06:46:00-04:00" +draft: true +--- +> How many people have to be in a room before the probability that two +> or more people in the room share a birthday is greater than 50%? + +This is called the [Birthday Problem][bp], and the solution is known as +the *birthday paradox*. It is a fun puzzle because: + +* The answer is counterintuitive (hence the name *birthday paradox*). +* The solution relies on elements of [combinatorics][], [set theory][], + and [probability][]. +* The implications affect security, particularly [cryptographic + hash algorithms][hash]. + +The explanation started as a blog post but got too long, so I moved it +to a full article instead. You can read the full article at the +following link: + +[The Birthday Problem][bp] + +[bp]: {{< relref "/content/articles/the-birthday-paradox.md" >}} + "The birthday problem." +[combinatorics]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combinatorics + "The mathematics of counting." +[set theory]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Set_theory + "The mathematics of sets." +[probability]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Probability + "The mathematics of determining how likely an event is to occur." +[hash]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptographic_hash_function + "Cryptographic hash algorithm." +[intersection]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersection_(set_theory) + "Intersection." +[independent]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Probability#Independent_events + "Independent events in probability theory." +[discrete]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_variable#Discrete_random_variable + "A random value with a countable number of possible values." +[joint probability]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_probability_distribution#Coin_flips + "Joint probability." +[die]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dice + "Dice." +[factorial]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factorial + "Factorial unary operator." +[ruby]: https://ruby-lang.org/ + "Ruby programming language." +[csv]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comma-separated_values + "Comma-separated values." +[html]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML + "HyperText Markup Language" +[yaml]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YAML + "YAML Ain't a Markup Language" +[hugo-table-shortcode]: https://github.com/pablotron/hugo-shortcode-table + "Table shortcode for Hugo." |