## Posts

Showing posts from September, 2014

### Maximizing Chances in an Unfair Game

Q: You are about to play a game wherein you flip a biased coin. The coin falls heads with probability $$p$$ and tails with $$1 - p$$ where $$p \le \frac{1}{2}$$. You are forced to play by selecting heads so the game is biased against you. For every toss you make, your opponent gets to toss too. The winner of this game is the one who wins the toss the most. You, however get to choose the number of rounds that get played. Can you ever hope to win?

Machine Learning: The Art and Science of Algorithms that Make Sense of Data

A: At a first look, it might appear that the odds are stacked against you as you are forced to play by choosing heads. You would think that your chances or winning decrease as you play more and more. But, surprisingly there is a way to choose the optimal number of tosses (remember, you get to choose the number of times this game is played). To see how, lets crank out some numbers. If you get to toss the coin $$n$$ times, then the total number of c…