Let me tell you about my favorite mathematical proof. It’s for a puzzle called the marriage problem (alternatively called the secretary problem or the sultan’s dowry). It’s my favorite for belonging to a rare category of “mathematical proofs which also have to do with sex.” The problem is very simple: Suppose you are looking to […]

I remember talking to a psychologist once about the difficulties of social science. She told me that the easy thing about being a physicist is that most people aren’t very familiar with physics—stars, quarks and gamma rays—so if you’ve done the research and have good reasons to believe something to be true, people will take […]