Distances to solve problems
After the time of conceptualization came that of applications in very varied fields, very often outside the field of mathematics, such as linguistics, physics or medicine. Many problems are solved there by building an appropriate distance, whose interpretation opens an extraordinary field to issues of our daily life. It becomes possible to measure a distance between words, between curves, between images. Who could believe that bank account numbers, the spell checker in your word processor or the interpretation of your blood test results rely on this concept? Discover some of these applications…
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Interpreting blood test results
In medicine, an atypicality index defined using specific distance measures can determine whether blood test results are considered pathological.
Berlekamp problem: a strategy game | Tangente
The idea of distance has applications in some unexpected fields. A playful example is the Berlekamp problem, in which Hamming distance makes an appearance—and proves particularly effective!
Error-correcting codes: keeping errors at bay
When sending a message, it is important to ensure that it will still be understandable when it arrives, even if it has been altered along the way. That is precisely the role of error-correcting codes.
Statistics and probability revisited
The basic statistical concepts of mean, standard deviation, median and median absolute deviation are widely used. We encounter them at school, in the media and in the workplace… All can be constructed from familiar distances, such as Euclidean or Manhattan distance.