Blog Entries for Rajan Sambandam

Books: The Physics of Star Trek

rsambandam@trchome.com — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 01:00:00 +0100

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 cer [...]

Bubble Psychology

rsambandam@trchome.com — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 01:00:00 +0100

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 chang [...]

Price is Right? Placebo Effects in Marketing

rsambandam@trchome.com — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 01:00:00 +0100

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 marke [...]

Video: Solving Rubik's Cube - Blindfolded

rsambandam@trchome.com — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 01:00:00 +0100

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.

Rubik's cube blindfolded.

Do you want to try?

Win Shares, Part II - How Players Line Up

rsambandam@trchome.com — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 01:00:00 +0100

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.

Who is the career leader in Win Shares? Babe Ruth, of course, with 756. How good was he? For 20 of the 22 se [...]

Win Shares, Part I - One Number To Compare Baseball Players

rsambandam@trchome.com — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 01:00:00 +0100

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 ab [...]

Insighter: John Allen Paulos

rsambandam@trchome.com — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 01:00:00 +0100

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 combinin [...]

Researchers (Randomly) Fight Poverty

rsambandam@trchome.com — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 01:00:00 +0100

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 solu [...]

Of Tightwads and Spendthrifts

rsambandam@trchome.com — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 01:00:00 +0100

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.

Definition [...]

Images: Rings of Saturn

rsambandam@trchome.com — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 01:00:00 +0100

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

The Election: Who Got It Right?

rsambandam@trchome.com — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 01:00:00 +0100

You can read my previous two election posts here and here. In this post I will take a look at who got the election right and what factors to look for in making that evaluation. Those factors include single polls versus (simple and complex) poll aggregations, use of combination forecasting, the use of cell phone only households in surveys and the astonishing performance of quantitative models that accurately predicted the final results almost a year back. Keep in mind that as of this writ [...]

School or Church: Can Where You Vote Impact How You Vote?

rsambandam@trchome.com — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 01:00:00 +0100

It is election day and you do your civic duty by going to your designated polling place, standing in line, chatting with a couple of nice people, drawing the curtain and pulling the lever. Do you notice where you have voted? Of course, it's at your local school (or church or firehouse). Did that have any influence on how you voted? Of course not, right? Not so fast. New research (by Jonah Berger, Marc Meredith and Christian Wheeler) indicates that the type of polling place can have a subt [...]

Jeopardy! Explains Gender Differences

rsambandam@trchome.com — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 01:00:00 +0100

OK, so Jeopardy! cannot possibly explain all the differences between the genders, but it helps quite a bit in understanding financial risk taking because of its unique format. Researchers studying gender differences in risk taking have known that men and women are different in several ways. For example, in general men are more willing to take risks, single women allocate less wealth to risky assets compared to single men, women have lower risk tolerance on health and retirement issues, women [...]

Does the Bradley Effect Exist?

rsambandam@trchome.com — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 01:00:00 +0100

The Bradley Effect is quite often mentioned in the media as we approach the Presidential election. It refers to the under-performance of a black candidate as compared to poll numbers. A good summary of various issues can be found here. A lot of the information about this effect is speculative or based on sparse polling numbers from other races which have led to questions of whether the effect really existed, whether it was seen in other races and whether in 2008 it is still likely to be seen. [...]

Obama or McCain? Part II

rsambandam@trchome.com — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 01:00:00 +0100

To read the first part of this post click here. In that we discussed how to use the available information to predict a winner in the current presidential race. While the polls (including the poll average) gave a small edge to McCain at that time, the other measures gave a mixed picture with the combined measure giving Obama a slight edge. Since that post a month ago the race has changed quite a bit. In this post I will revisit those numbers to see where they stand, how they have changed and w [...]

Books: Against the Gods

rsambandam@trchome.com — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 01:00:00 +0100

Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk by Peter L. Bernstein

Given what has been happening in the economy recently, this book (written ten years ago) provides an excellent foundation for understanding how we ended up here. In telling the story of risk, Bernstein focuses on how much people believe the past determines the future. The more we believe we understand the past, the more certain we are of what will happen in the future. Quantifying the past helps enormously in bringing [...]

Video: Emergency Eyeglasses

rsambandam@trchome.com — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 01:00:00 +0100

You wear eye glasses and have misplaced them and can't see anything. What do you do? The science educator Robert Krampf is coming to your aid with a simple solution.

Emergency eyeglasses

For more videos on simple science experiments check out his website.

Can Money Buy Happiness?

rsambandam@trchome.com — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 01:00:00 +0100

This question has been asked for millennia and before any research was done there were three possible answers: yes, no, maybe so. After some research was done in the 70's, we had what was called as the Easterlin paradox which seemed to show that money and happiness were not related. More recent research from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with data from many countries around the globe seems to indicate that people with more money are, in fact, happier.

< [...]

Insighter: Richard Feynman

rsambandam@trchome.com — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 01:00:00 +0100

Richard Feynman was one of the pre-eminent physicists of the 20th century. The leader of the Manhattan Project, Robert Oppenheimer, had described him as the most brilliant young physicist, even among the elite group that came together to work on the bomb. While his primary contribution was to help physicists understand and think about physics in a new way, he also had several other noteworthy contributions such as pioneering the thinking on superconductivity and nanotechnology. Ultimatel [...]

Obama or McCain - who will win?

rsambandam@trchome.com — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 01:00:00 +0100

A question that is of great interest now and the common response tends to be "who's leading in the polls?". You often hear people say that the latest poll from some reputable organization shows one candidate with a 3 point lead. Is that the best measure we have of predicting who will win the Presidential election? I submit that it is not and will walk you through the different measures available and what is most likely the best one. I say most likely because nothing predicts the [...]