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The Josephus Problem - Numberphile

Numberphile

4.7M subscribers • 28 videos on Hallway

YouTube
  • Recommended by 2 people: 2 on Hacker News.
  • A classic. People kept recommending it from 2018 to 2022.
  • Presented by Daniel Erman, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Beginner. No background in the topic needed.

6.9M views10 years ago2 recommendations

Computer scienceAlgorithmsMath for programmersData structures

Daniel Erman explains the Josephus elimination problem and demonstrates its elegant binary-based mathematical solution.

The Josephus Problem, featuring Daniel Erman from University of Wisconsin-Madison. Winning at Dots and Boxes: youtu.be/KboGyIilP6k More links & stuff in full description below ↓↓↓ Correction: Around that should be L less than 2^a NOT 2a --- Sorry, typo in editing! But you got the point hopefully. Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/numberphile NUMBERPHILE Website: numberphile.com/ Numberphile on Facebook: facebook.com/numberphile Numberphile tweets: twitter.com/numberphile Subscribe: bit.ly/Numberphile_Sub Numberphile is supported by the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI): bit.ly/MSRINumberphile Videos by Brady Haran Brady's videos subreddit: reddit.com/r/BradyHaran/ Brady's latest videos across all channels: bradyharanblog.com/ Sign up for (occasional) emails: eepurl.com/YdjL9 Numberphile T-Shirts: teespring.com/stores/numberphile Other merchandise: store.dftba.com/collections/numberphile

Why it's here

2 people recommend this

What people say. Recommended as an engaging explanation of the Josephus problem and how simplifying a hard problem can reveal elegant binary patterns.

yantramson Hacker News • Recommends

On “Dealing with Hard Problems (2015)”

…echniques before attacking it. For a research/modelling problem, my approach is to start working on the most simplified version of it and gradually progress towards the original problem. There is an excellent numberphile video on Josephus problem that illustrates how examining specific instances to observe patterns can help solve the general case. link to this video Edit: Formatting…
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hostcontrolleron Hacker News • Recommends

On “Ask HN: What's your favorite math/logic puzzle?”

I really like the Josephus Problem (Numberphile‘s Video on YT( link to this video )) because of the binary twist, really enjoyed Veritasium‘s 3x+1( link ) and my favorite is your described 100 Prisoners Riddle( link ) too
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d0mineon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Many elementary teachers don’t understand math, and it makes them anxious”

Simple examples may be useful. Exploring them, proving stuff about them it is how one may carve a foothold to solve a harder problem. Example: The Josephus Problem - Numberphile link to this video
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leiperton Hacker News • Mentions

On “I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)”

When I interviewed at my current company, I was pretty stressed about the interview and watched some Numberphile videos the night before to take my mind off things. Weirdly enough one of the problems discussed in the interview was about the Josephus problem which has a neat solution in binary 0. I don’t recall if I ever asked the interviewer whether they also watched the video recently or how they came to think of it. 0: link to this video
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