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Let $n\geq 2$ be an integer. We pick $n$ points in $[0,1]$ with uniform distribution. Let $A$ be the minimum distance that two adjacent points have, and let $B$ be the maximum distance that two adjace …

Motivation. With my younger son I played the following game on a big (dysfunctional) clock which can be modelled as $\mathbb{Z}/12\mathbb{Z}$ : Put the clock hands at number $12 ( = 0)$. Toss a coin, …

We pick $n\ge 2$ points in $[0,1]$ with uniform distribution. What is the expected value of the largest distance of $2$ adjacent points?

I have a die that produces uniformly distributed values in $\{1,\ldots, k\}$ for some integer $k\geq 2$. Now I play the following game. I start rolling the die and produce one integer in $\{1,\ldots, …

This is based on an older question. For $n\in\mathbb{N}$, let $[n]:= \{1,\ldots,n\}$. Let $\text{Fun}(n)$ denote the set of all functions $f:[n]\to[n]$. To $f\in\text{Fun}(n)$ and ''starting value'' $ …

We are given an integer $n \geq 1$ and $2n$ cards, labelled $0$ to $2n-1$. We pick a card with uniform probability, put it back, and continue, until for some $k\in \{0,n-1\}$ the cards $2k$ and $2k+1$ …

For any positive integer $n\in\mathbb{N}$ let $S_n$ denote the set of all bijective maps $\pi:\{1,\ldots,n\}\to\{1,\ldots,n\}$. For $n>1$ and $\pi\in S_n$ define the neighboring number $N_n(\pi)$ as t …

For $n\in\mathbb{N}$, let $[n]:= \{1,\ldots,n\}$. Let $\text{Fun}(n)$ denote the set of all functions $f:[n]\to[n]$. To $f\in\text{Fun}(n)$ associate a sequence $\text{seq}(f))$ defined recursively by …

$\newcommand{\n}{\{1,\ldots,n\}}$ $\newcommand{\FF}{\text{FF}}$ $\newcommand{\lc}{\text{lc}}$ Motivation. A group of my son's peers decided to have a few days of Secret Santa before last year's Christ …

Motivation. As I was playing the pairs-matching game "Memory" (known as "Concentration" in some parts of the world) with my children, I was surprised that even thorough shuffling could not prevent qui …

I roll a fair die with $n>1$ sides until the most recent roll is smaller than the previous one. Let $E_n$ be the expected number of rolls. Do we have $\lim_{n\to\infty} E_n < \infty$? If not, what abo …

For any integer $n$, let ${\cal G}_n$ denote the set of simple, undirected graphs $G = (V, E)$ where $V = \{1,\ldots,n\}$. The Hadwiger number $\eta(G)$ of a finite graph $G$ is the maximum integer $m …

Recently I was playing several rounds of the game of pairs with my children. I was surprised that almost every time, one matching pair was adjacent (either next to each other in a row, or vertically). …

Let $n$ be a positive integer and let $S_n$ be the collection of permutations $\pi:\{1,\ldots,n\}\to \{1,\ldots,n\}$. For $\pi\in S_n$ let $\text{maxcyc}(\pi)$ denote the length of the longest cycle o …

Motivation. Recently I stayed at a hotel which had the curious custom to ask their $n$ parties (group of guests, most parties a married couple) which of the $n$ tables they wanted to take. Of course t …