Topics
How Netflix chooses which movie you watch next.
Different Home pages? We have all been there, scrolling through the Netflix home page while not being able to decide what movie or series to watch. Some movies seem interesting, but not enough to really dedicate your night to them. It is certainly a common issue that Netflix is fully aware of. Since Netflix relies […]
Why bad movies are released at the beginning of the year
Looking to catch a movie this month? Chances are that the movie might disappoint you. In fact, apparently most movies which are considered bad tend to be released in January and February. To find out when bad movies come out, it is important to look when movies that are considered good come out. Most of […]
A breakthrough towards endless clean energy
On the fifth of December 2022, a group of researchers at the National Ignitions Facility (NIF) in the USA, conducted an experiment which released 3.15 MJ of energy while only using 2.05 MJ of energy [3]. During this experiment, heavy hydrogen atoms were fused into a helium atom, which released energy in the process, this […]
How to win Deal Or No Deal
Have you ever wondered whether there is a winning strategy when playing Deal Or No Deal? The game show might seem like a game of chance, as you choose a suitcase at random and are betting against a banker. However, the opposite is true: you can play according to a strategy when playing Deal Or […]
The moving sofa problem
Mathematics is undeniably beautiful in a certain way, providing us answers to many of life’s complex issues. It finds itself in all aspects of society, and has played a major role for thousands of years. However, despite our deep understanding, there are still many unsolved problems. For most of us, we can’t even begin to […]
Dunning-Kruger Effect
How intelligent do you think you are? Can you accurately predict your own skill level or judge the intelligence of your ideas? In 1999, David Dunning and Justin Kruger, two social psychologists, discovered that people are exceptionally poor judges of their abilities, revealing a cognitive bias that impacts almost everyone on the planet. This cognitive […]
The Four-Color Theorem
The Four-Color Theorem is a theorem that has its roots in graph theory. The theorem states that any planar graph can be colored properly with four colors. Here properly colored means that no two vertices of the graph that are connected are colored using the same color. The theorem was first conjectured by F. Guthrie […]
Why “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” Is Not Just Another Disney Song
“We Don’t Talk About Bruno” is of course sung by Bruno’s family, the Madrigal Family. But what if I told you that this type of song, where multiple melodies are sung simultaneously, is also called a Madrigal? And that there are many more meanings behind some of the musical and textual choices made for this […]
The Pros and Cons of Artificial Intelligence: a Scientific Perspective
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a rapidly growing field that has the potential to revolutionize many aspects of our lives, from healthcare and transportation to education and entertainment. In recent years, we have seen impressive developments in AI technology, such as the release of the ChatGPT language model, which can generate human-like text in a variety […]
Reaching the Unreachable
Have you ever felt like giving up? Wanting to quit something because it seems impossible to reach your goal (for example passing Difference- and Differential Equations)? Of course you have, but don’t give up too fast! Sometimes, it is possible to succeed in what seemed like a hopeless mission (like passing Difference- and Differential Equations). […]
How to Prevent High Interest Rates on Your Student Debt
A couple of weeks ago, Dutch students were hit with an extremely unpleasant surprise: not only did the current generation of students miss out on the “basisbeurs”, but they will also have to pay interest on their student loans! Luckily, there is a little loophole students can exploit to keep the damage to a minimum! […]
A crash course in general equilibrium theory
I have always had a weakness for history lessons. Although very different from the standard optimal control problems and differential equations I am solving in my studies, I find that the lessons we can learn from great previous minds are both insightful and fascinating. Combining both my favorite economics concepts and a history lesson, today […]
The Coming Recession – Why There Will Probably Be a Recession Next Year
We are living in economically tumultuous times, with high inflation, rapid interest rate rises, and an energy and climate crisis interfering with the economy. Many economic institutions talk of the imminence of a global recession. This fact gives rise to the question: What is a recession? And why should or shouldn’t we worry about it? […]
Why do cities often have a poor east side?
London, New York, Paris, Toronto, Manchester: all cities where poverty tends to gather in the east. For each of these cities, one could think of explanations for this on an individual basis. In London for example, the river Thames flowed eastwards. Since in the past the Thames was used to dump a lot of waste […]
Van Gogh – not just a painter
Van Gogh is undoubtedly one of the most famous painters of all time, but perhaps it’s time to consider him a mathematician. Starry Night is one of Van Gogh’s most renowned paintings, depicting just that: a starry night. With a bright moon on the right, and Venus in the centre left, the sky is dominated […]
How to read a QR code without your phone
You can see them almost everywhere nowadays: QR codes. They can be used for all kinds of things: showing you the menu in a restaurant, getting wifi and even paying for something via a ‘Tikkie’. The first time I saw such a QR code, I wondered immediately how it works, as you scan the QR […]
A triangle that changed the world
When you think of mathematics, you imagine a sea of numbers, formulae and relationships. This is, of course, as we know, quite often the case. However, mathematics hides quite interesting relationships you might not have thought of before. One of the most common “interesting relationships” in math is Euler’s identity: $e^{i*\pi} + 1 = 0$. […]
Winning in Martial Arts: A Data-Driven Strategy
As a martial arts practitioner and fan, I have recently become more interested in the applications of data science to the fields of martial arts. As you may know, during a fight, data is collected in the form of video and observations. This data is used to determine KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) of the fighters […]
Bayesian Statistical Inference
Statistical inference is the use of data analysis to say something about the probability distribution of the underlying data. A very common tool to say something about the likely distribution of data is the method of maximum likelihood. Here we make an assumption of the distribution type that the data follows and then estimate the […]
Why all horses have the same colour
What if I told you that all horses have the same colour? And that 2 = 1? And, to top it off, that I could prove it? You would probably say I’m delusional and that my proof must contain a mistake. However, there are proofs that do not contain mistakes which conclude these statements to […]
Eating your cake the right way
For some reason I always have a hard time making inter-temporal decisions. Should I drink a few more beers tonight, taking into account that I have a lecture at 9 am tomorrow? Should I buy that new piece of clothing or save to accumulate some (possibly negative) interest on my bank account? Planning my actions […]
Are we alone in the Universe?
Since the beginning of civilization, humans have looked up into the sky and wondered whether we are alone in the Universe. Since then our technology has come quite a way and it feels like we can make a better-educated guess to this question. We currently estimate that our observable Universe is home to approximately $10^{23}$ […]
The Ewing Theory
What happens if your team’s best player goes down with an injury, leaves for another team or retires? Your team should be less successful, right? Well, as it turns out, this is not necessarily always true. Sometimes, a team can inexplicably flourish without their superstar. This phenomenon was given a fitting name by Dave Cirilli: […]
Why your Dobble cards always match
Dobble: a game played by kids, but still very popular among adults. In the game, you have to draw two random cards and place them face-up on the table between all the players. Then, you have to look for the identical symbol between the two cards. Between every two cards, there is always only one […]
Gabriel’s Horn Paradox
Some people just die too soon. One such person was Evangelista Torricelli, an Italian mathematician who died at the age of 39 in the year of 1647. Had Torricelli lived longer, he just might have discovered calculus, before Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz. Although Torricelli’s contributions to science and mathematics are too numerous to list, […]
Why do we count in base 10?
What is two plus two? The realist will say four, the computer will say 100, and the cynic will say 5 – but which is correct? The reason we count in base 10 stems from the simplest fact: humans have 10 fingers. Understandable and logical, as this seems to be nature’s way of telling us […]
Tornado Cash
Tornado Cash is a tool used on the blockchain. Specifically on the Ethereum blockchain and is known as a crypto mixer. Recently Tornado Cash has been in the news because it has been added to the Specially Designated National & Blocked Persons List (SDN). This means that any person in the United States, can be […]
Rising inflation and the Taylor Rule
I recently noticed that in the last few months, my favorite pack of oatmeal went up in price by 40%, from 50 cents to a whopping 70. Not only that, but the beers at the ‘Negende Cirkel’ have probably increased as well (I have to check it when I am sober, though). Actually, life just […]
How long can one survive without sleep?
Terror, hallucinations, paranoia, psychosis. The effects of sleep deprivation are not just devastating, they can last for life – but just how long can you survive without any sleep? 24 hours with no sleep Most people have gone a full day without sleep several times in their lives. You know you are prone to becoming […]
Portfolio dynamics 101
A portfolio is a collection of financial investments like stocks, bonds, commodities, cash, and cash equivalents, including closed-end funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). People generally believe that stocks, bonds, and cash comprise the core of a portfolio. Though this is often the case, it does not need to be the rule. A portfolio may contain […]