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Diffstat (limited to 'content/posts')
| -rw-r--r-- | content/posts/2021-11-11-the-birthday-paradox.md | 24 |
1 files changed, 10 insertions, 14 deletions
diff --git a/content/posts/2021-11-11-the-birthday-paradox.md b/content/posts/2021-11-11-the-birthday-paradox.md index df1abd6..0b6c1af 100644 --- a/content/posts/2021-11-11-the-birthday-paradox.md +++ b/content/posts/2021-11-11-the-birthday-paradox.md @@ -4,26 +4,22 @@ 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%? +> How many people have to be in a room before the probability that there +> is a shared 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 *birthday paradox*. It is an interesting problem because the answer +is counterintuitive (hence the name *birthday paradox*) and because the +ramifications affect security, particularly [cryptographic hash +algorithms][hash]. -* 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 was a bit long for a blog post, so I moved it +to a full article which you can read at the following URL: -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] +[The Birthday Paradox][bp] [bp]: {{< relref "/content/articles/the-birthday-paradox.md" >}} - "The birthday problem." + "The birthday Paradox" [combinatorics]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combinatorics "The mathematics of counting." [set theory]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Set_theory |