The mathematics of betting
At all times and in all civilizations, gambling and the chance that governs it have fascinated! Since the 15th century, mathematicians have gradually attempted to tame chance and to put betting into equation. Despite their conclusions, men still seek to "force the hand of fate" by developing martingales to win against the uncertain future. Can these strategies be applied to the next presidential elections? Do you know everything about odds, bookmaker methods and totally counterintuitive probabilistic paradoxes?
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D'Alembert's heads-or-tails dispute | Tangente
A coin tossed twice has a one-in-four chance of landing heads both times. D'Alembert had his doubts. Why? To say he was wrong is to challenge a law formulated by Laplace. Yet Laplace failed to see that his own rule lent credence to D'Alembert's doubts!
Famous paradoxes: Pascal's wager & St. Petersburg | Tangente
Let's rediscover the famous Pascal's wager, a line of reasoning as questionable mathematically as it is theologically!
Bookmakers don't like probabilities
Since bookmakers try to assess the outcomes of horse races, it is easy to imagine that they rely on probability. Rather surprisingly, they do not! This paradox can be explained by a mathematical property of probabilities.
Bets settled by geometry
Some winning probabilities can be determined through geometric considerations, thus avoiding lengthy calculations.
Pascal's wager applied to presidential elections | Tangente
Throughout history and across civilizations, chance has fascinated people. Although betting was not conceptualized until the 15th and 16th centuries, it had already attracted many enthusiasts. Strategies were devised. But can they be adapted to presidential elections?
Betting on the presidential election: probability and polls | Tangente
To mark the French presidential election, which coincides with Tangente's feature on betting, we are inviting our readers to bet… on the candidates' shares of the vote! It is free to enter, with thousands of euros in vouchers to be won.