A multi-computational exploration of some games of pure chance

DOI10.1016/J.JSC.2020.04.003zbMATH Open1466.91066arXiv1909.11546OpenAlexW3017901058MaRDI QIDQ2229699FDOQ2229699

Authors: Doron Zeilberger, Thotsaporn Thanatipanonda 

Publication date: 18 February 2021

Published in: Journal of Symbolic Computation (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: In the spirit of "multi-culturalism", we use four kinds of computations: simulation, numeric, symbolic, and "conceptual" to explore some "games of pure chance" inspired by children board games like "Snakes and Ladders" (aka as "Chutes and Ladders") and "gambler's ruin with unlimited credit". Even more interesting than the many computer-generated actual results described in this paper and its web-site extension, is our broad-minded, ecunemical approach, not favoring, a priori, any one of the above four kinds of computation, but showing that, a posteriori, symbolic computation is the most important one, since (except for simulation, that is very inaccurate) numerics can be made more efficient with the help of symbolics (in the "downward" direction), and, (in the "upward" direction) the mere existence of certain symbolic-computational algorithms imply interesting "qualitative" results, that certain numbers are always rational, or always algebraic, and certain sequences are always polynomial, or C-recursive, or algebraic, or holonomic. This article is accompanied by four Maple packages, and numerous input and output files, that readers can use as templates for their own investigations.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1909.11546

Recommendations

• The mathematics of snakes and ladders
• Symbol-crunching with the gambler's ruin problem
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zbMATH Keywords

symbolic computationexperimental mathematicsgames of pure chance

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Symbolic computation and algebraic computation (68W30) Experimental studies (91A90) Probabilistic games; gambling (91A60) Algorithmic game theory and complexity (91A68)

Cites Work

• GFUN
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• Catalan Numbers
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• Gambler’s Ruin: The Duration of Play
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Cited In (6)

• Random Perturbation in Games of Chance
• A computer algebra approach to the discrete Dirichlet problem
• A probabilistic analysis of the Game of the Goose
• Symbol-crunching with the gambler's ruin problem
• Rigorous Computer Analysis of the Chow–Robbins Game
• The mathematics of snakes and ladders

Uses Software

• gfun
• Maple
• OEIS
• Cfinite
• DEtools

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