Talk:2529: Unsolved Math Problems
Center panel possibly related to "The drunkards walk" and theories on randomised motion.
https://www.quantamagazine.org/random-walk-puzzle-solution-20160907/
More references https://mathworld.wolfram.com/RandomWalk.html
Someone's gotta point out that "walking randomly on a grid, never visiting the same square twice" would rapidly trap you in a corner (even the example has a 50/50 chance of that happening on the next move) 172.70.130.125 04:29, 16 October 2021 (UTC)
Not if it's an infinite grid.
I think there's two different ways to interpret the question - as a uniform random element of the set of all non-self-intersection NxK length paths, in which case it's fine, or as a path defined by a random walk in which moves onto your own path are not allowed, which doesn't seem well defined, since you might end up in a situation where you are surrounded by your own path and cannot continue for all NxK steps.
An early example of a cursed problem is the Cantor Function. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantor_function
I admire whoever wrote the description of the curve in the "cursed" panel. Barmar (talk) 05:36, 16 October 2021 (UTC)
"Algebreic" is a misspelling of "algebraic". Could Randall really have made this mistake, or is it another malamanteu? What does "breic" come from? Barmar (talk) 06:10, 16 October 2021 (UTC)
I wonder if Randall was actually referring to that quote about "Into the Woods", or he just thought "Sondheim calculus" sounded cool and it was a total coincidence. I found it when I googled "sondheim calculus" to make sure it wasn't a real thing. Barmar (talk) 06:29, 16 October 2021 (UTC)
In panel 2, what would 'k' be? 172.69.35.108 08:00, 16 October 2021 (UTC)
'k' would represent the number of marbles placed on the ground. 162.158.88.127 08:09, 16 October 2021 (UTC)
To me, the cursed curve looks a bit like a crosier https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crosiere_of_arcbishop_Heinrich_of_Finstingen.jpg
--> I had the same impression and added it. --162.158.94.219 11:40, 16 October 2021 (UTC)
