The Random Number Generator - One of the best Maths problems ever IMO

cynic said:

I think it may have been this one.

Click to expand...

Thanks.

The Wikipedia link to the solution of the Secretary Problem - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secretary_problem - has this version of the problem called the Googol Game. The Googol Game apparently was the original and was first published in Scientific American by Martin Gardner in 1960 in his regular Mathematical Games column.

Gardner wrote several puzzle type books which were collections of his puzzles from SA. I read most of them when I was a lot younger and knew math a lot better than I do now. They are worth having a read if you come across them in bookstores, but they are all online as e-books anyway. He had a brilliant mind. He died 5 years ago. More on him here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Gardner