Cahit Arf Lecture 2013-2014 by Persi Diaconis

Persi Diaconis

Stanford University
http://statweb.stanford.edu/~cgates/PERSI

The Mathematics of Coincidences

Date: March 4, 2014
at 15:40
Place:

Cahit Arf Auditorium
Department of Mathematics
Middle East Technical University
Ankara, Turkey

Supported by

Abstract

Amazing coincidences are all around us, where we work and live and what we do often seem determined by seeming coincidences.  I will review the history of ways of thinking about such things (work of Jung and Freud) and then show how a bit of mathematics can suggest that things are not so surprising after all.  The math involves graph theory and probability in surprising new ways.