Insights puzzle
How to Hang Far Out Over the Edge
What formula describes the farthest you can stack flat blocks over the edge of a table to form a seemingly gravity-defying half-bridge to nowhere?
Abstractions blog
The Devil in the Polling Data
The same problem that caused the 2007 financial crisis also tripped up the polling data ahead of this year’s presidential election.
Abstractions blog
Why (Almost) Everyone Was Wrong
The results of this year’s presidential election made a mockery of analytical election forecast modelers.
Insights puzzle
Solution: ‘Which Forecasts Are True?’
Aside from potential clues gleaned from a fluke result, it would take hundreds of U.S. presidential elections to definitely conclude that one election forecasting model is superior to another.
Insights puzzle
How Can We Tell Which Forecasts Are True?
Presidential election forecasts are historically successful and appear to be highly precise. Yet they’re often contradictory. What would it take to trust them?
Insights puzzle
Solution: ‘Time Through an LCD Display’
Insights about time’s arrow from a liquid crystal universe.
Insights puzzle
Seeing Time Through a Liquid Crystal Display
What insights can an LCD display give us about time’s arrow?
Insights puzzle
Solution: ‘A Drunkard’s Walk in Manhattan’
City blocks help illustrate why walking randomly tends to take you away from your starting point.
Insights puzzle
A Drunkard’s Walk in Manhattan
Why is it that when you walk randomly, the more you walk, the farther you get from your starting point?