The Physics of Star Trek by Lawrence Krauss
Yes, there is such a book and as you would have guessed, it was written by a physicist who is a Star Trek fan. If you have interest in either topic this book would be a good and short read. The foreword is written by no less an eminent physicist than Stephen Hawking and starts appropriately enough at the time when along with Newton and Einstein he was invited to a game of poker on the Starship Enterprise by the android Data. While the book certainly provides plenty of explanation and speculation about the technologies used on the various Star Trek series, it is particularly interesting because of the excellent explanations of physics that are woven into it. On balance, the writers of the series do come out looking respectable. For the most part.
Posted by: Rajan Sambandam in Markets on
Dec 26, 2008
Are market bubbles inevitable? Virginia Postrel has an interesting column in The Atlantic that explores the topic and pretty much arrives at that conclusion. Lab experiments run by the Nobel Prize winning economist Vernon Smith have repeatedly shown the formation of market bubbles. But as traders gain experience the bubbles become less likely and eventually disappear. So it appears that experience can have a modifying effect on bubble formation. However, when market conditions change, even experienced traders stumble and bubbles form.
It is no secret that consumers often perceive a price-quality relationship, attributing higher quality to products for which they pay more. A large body of pricing research supports the existence of this phenomenon and it is not hard to find personal examples. But what happens when price is compared to objective quality as measured by say, Consumer Reports? Strangely, the relationship between price and quality almost completely disappears. Why? New research points to a placebo action in marketing whereby self-fulfilling expectations could lead lower priced products to perform worse. In other words the quality you get may be related to what you pay because you (unconsciously, it appears) deem it so.
Posted by: Rajan Sambandam in Creativity on
Dec 15, 2008
You remember Rubik's cube, don't you? You may even remember cracking it in a reasonable time.
Ever seen someone do it really fast? Without looking? Here it is.
Posted by: Rajan Sambandam in Baseball on
Dec 05, 2008
In Part I of this post the ides of Win Shares was introduced as the creation of the sabermetrician Bill James. It is a single number that encompasses the complete contribution of a baseball player during a season and hence allows measurement and comparison of player values over time. In this part we will look at specific Win Share numbers and players who excelled over time.
Posted by: Rajan Sambandam in Baseball on
Dec 05, 2008
Baseball fans love to argue. That much we can say with certainty. Where uncertainty begins is in the facts brought forward to support the arguments. Baseball is awash with statistics but a common mistake (the availability error) is to use the easy ones to make one's argument regardless of its relevance. Situationally, a fan can use batting average, home runs, RBI, ERA, saves or other easily available statistics to bolster his case. Alternately, more subjective criteria such as fielding ability, speed, clutch hitting and leadership are also used to contend that certain players are better. Sabermetricians have created many objective measures (OPS, VORP, etc) for player quality which, while sometimes used, have not caught the popular imagination, largely because of a lack of simplicity and comparability. Wouldn't it be nice to have a single, simple number that can accurately summarize a player's complete contribution during a season and that allows players to be easily compared? That is what Bill James the patron saint of sabermetricians has developed. It is called Win Shares. In Part I of this post we will take a non-technical look at this statistic. In Part II we will look at highs and lows over time and why we may be witnessing one of the greatest baseball players of all time.
Posted by: Rajan Sambandam in Mathematics on
Nov 29, 2008
Mathematics and humor are words that rarely go together. But they do coexist in the person of John Allen Paulos. He certainly has the math part down as a professor of said subject at Temple University in Philadelphia. Evidence of the humor part can be found in any of his various books and writings. His particular contribution is in showing the lack of basic mathematical heft in much of the public discourse. But he does it in simple language, with wit and without equations, seamlessly combining the left and right brains.
Researchers come in many flavors but tend to have a common aspiration; to do research that is meaningful. The researchers at the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) at MIT are doing exactly that. It is a diverse group of researchers from several institutions from areas such as economics, public policy, development, business and finance that conducts research on developmental issues around the world. What makes them different is that their research often leads to real world solutions that can be applied by governments and NGOs in the service of poverty elimination and related issue. A common technique they apply in this pursuit is the randomized trial.
Do you spend money a little too easily or does it hurt to spend at all? Do you wonder if you are the only one or if other people have the same problem too? Does your gender, age or income have anything to do with whether you are a tightwad or a spendthrift? What effect do marketing offers have on your tendency to hand over the cash, or for that matter, your credit card? Recent research shows that tightwads and spendthrifts do exist and are quite different in these behaviors.
Posted by: Rajan Sambandam in Science on
Nov 13, 2008
Saturn is the only planet in our solar system to have extensive and beautiful rings. Have you wondered what they look like up close?
Wonder no more. For your viewing pleasure, NASA has sent the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft to Saturn and its moons to capture their many moods.
Behold.
Rings of Saturn
Insightology