Probabilistic World

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact

The Birthday Problem: Analytic Solution

Posted on August 11, 2020 Written by The Cthaeh Leave a Comment

UEFA Nations League semi-final between Netherlands and England (prematch, 06/06/2019), with the birthday problem formula in the background

Welcome to the first post from my new series. Here we’re going look at a famous probability question often called the birthday problem. This is actually a more general question related to the probability of at least one coincidence after a fixed number of draws from a discrete uniform distribution.

This post is part of my series Probability Questions from the Real World.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Applications of Probability Theory, Combinatorics Tagged With: Discrete uniform distribution, Expected value, Permutation, Sample space

The Binomial Distribution (and Theorem): Intuitive Understanding

Posted on May 19, 2020 Written by The Cthaeh 1 Comment

A skyscraper resembling a binomial distribution

Hi, everyone! And welcome to my post about the binomial distribution! Just like the Bernoulli distribution, this is one of the most commonly used and important discrete probability distributions.

This post is part of my series on discrete probability distributions.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Combinatorics, Probability Distributions Tagged With: Bernoulli distribution, Binomial distribution, Coin flip, Mean, Probability mass, Variance

The Birth and Evolution of Cryptographic Codes

Posted on May 1, 2020 Written by The Cthaeh Leave a Comment

Cryptography, historical series, part 4 (Alfred Dreyfus & Mary, Queen of Scots in the background)

Welcome to part 4 of my series on cryptography! After taking an in-depth look into ciphers in the previous two posts, now it’s time to delve into the other big category of cryptographic methods. So, this week’s post is going to be about cryptographic codes.

This post is part of my series Cryptography: Historical Intro & Combinatoric Analysis.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Combinatorics, Cryptography & Cryptanalysis Tagged With: Code, History

Vigenère and the Age of Polyalphabetic Ciphers

Posted on April 20, 2020 Written by The Cthaeh Leave a Comment

Cryptography, historical series, part 3 (Vigenère portrait in the background)

In this week’s post, I’m going to introduce you to the world of polyalphabetic substitution ciphers. And to the most famous cipher from this category: the Vigenère cipher.

This post is part of my series Cryptography: Historical Intro & Combinatoric Analysis.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Combinatorics, Cryptography & Cryptanalysis Tagged With: Cipher, History

The Column and Caesar Ciphers: Ancient Cryptography

Posted on April 13, 2020 Written by The Cthaeh Leave a Comment

Cryptography, historical series, part 2 (Roman and Spartan statues in the background)

Today, I’m going to introduce two ciphers from the dawn of cryptography: the column cipher and the Caesar cipher. These ciphers illustrate some of the first human ideas in the direction of cryptographic thought.

This post is part of my series Cryptography: Historical Intro & Combinatoric Analysis.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Combinatorics, Cryptography & Cryptanalysis Tagged With: Cipher, History

Cryptography: Historical Introduction & Combinatoric Analysis (Series)

Posted on April 6, 2020 Written by The Cthaeh Leave a Comment

Cryptography, historical series, part 1 (the Kryptos sculpture in the background)

Hi everyone, and welcome to my series on cryptography!

Initially, I started writing this as a single post, but as I was planning what I wanted to include, and seeing how long it would become, I decided it’s best to split it into separate posts.

Cryptography is the study of techniques and procedures, such as using codes and ciphers, for secure (secret) communication between two or more agents. More specifically, it deals with finding sophisticated ways of hiding the true content of messages exchanged between communicators. People use cryptography in military and diplomatic communication, password protection, securing online transactions, as well as in any other context where some secret information needs to be protected from being accessed or understood.

As you’ll see in future posts, probability theory too can play an important role in cryptography.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Combinatorics, Cryptography & Cryptanalysis Tagged With: Cipher, Code, History

  • 1
  • 2
  • Next Page »

Sign Up For The Probabilistic World Newsletter

Enter your email below to receive updates and be notified about new posts.

Follow Probabilistic World

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Recent posts

  • Alternative Variance Formulas and Their Derivation
  • The Sum Operator: Everything You Need to Know
  • Natural Numbers and Arithmetic: Intuition
  • The Birthday Problem: Python Simulation
  • The Birthday Problem: Analytic Solution

Probabilistic World