Huygens' solution to the gambler's ruin problem
type: Item
instance of: scholarly article
title: Huygens' solution to the gambler's ruin problem
zbMATH Open document ID: 0628.01008
DOI: 10.1016/0315-0860(87)90017-6
author: Eddie Shoesmith
published in: Historia Mathematica
publication date: 1986-01-01T00:00:00Z
review text: The fifth problem \((=\) the gambler's ruin problem) at the end of C. Huygens' treatise ``De ratiociniis in ludo aleae'' (1657) has been communicated only with its numerical result. The origin of the problem and its early solutions have been discussed by \textit{A. W. F. Edwards} [Int. Stat. Rev. 51, 73-79 (1983; Zbl 0502.60002)]. This note discusses Huygens' solution which has been found on a sheet of paper, dated 1676 [see Oeuvres complètes de C. Huygens, Vol. 14, 151-155 (1920). It contains an interesting diagrammatic component and indicates the structure of an essentially inductive algebraic argument using expectation trees.
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 01A45
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 60-03
zbMATH DE Number: 4021055
zbMATH Keywords: expectation-diagrams.Zbl 0502.60002
describes a project that uses: APL
MaRDI profile type: Publication
full work available at URL: 0315-0860(87)90017-6
OpenAlex ID: W2033557215
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description: scientific article; zbMATH DE number 4021055