You've heard of Markov chains. But who was Markov?

http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2013/01/an-idea-that-changed-the-world/

by krg • 14 years ago

112 20 14 years ago

news.harvard.edu

vph• 14 years ago

the reason why not many people know who Markov is is that sometimes he is hidden. And a hidden markov can be quite elusive.

larsberg• 14 years ago

I recommend first checking for him in Monaco. Monte Carlo, Monaco, to be precise...

seclorum2• 14 years ago

Just be sure to always bet on black, 2 ..

11001• 14 years ago

Just ask Viterbi, Viterbi always knows where the hidden Markov is.

noelwelsh2• 14 years ago

I always assumed a Markov chain was some kind of Siberian drinking game. Hence the interest in the running the chain to its stationary distribution.

noelwelsh2• 14 years ago

Odd that this was down-voted. It's a (bad) joke. Allow me to explain:

Calculating the stationary distribution is one of the main things people do with Markov chains. That's all that PageRank is -- the stationary distribution of the Markov chain constructed from the network of links on the web.

seclorum2• 14 years ago

{The odds are pretty high that this will get downvoted, on account of the lack of vodka.}

Markovs is a natural law, proven, is it not? Well then, it will be found in any system.

bo1024• 13 years ago

I get the Markov chain part, I don't get the Siberian drinking game part....

if_by_whisky• 14 years ago

Markov was an atheist. In 1912 he protested Leo Tolstoy's excommunication from the Russian Orthodox Church by requesting his own excommunication. The Church complied with his request. [Wikipedia.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrey_Markov)

freyr• 14 years ago

> A “Monopoly” board has 40 possible “states”

Ah, just like chess has 64 possible states. Except that chess has on the order 10^47 states.

mturmon2• 14 years ago

They needed to use "Chutes and Ladders," which really does have a handful of states.

bcbrown2• 14 years ago

The [position of a player on a Monopoly board] has 40 possible states.

mturmon2• 14 years ago

But the transition between states in Monopoly depends not only on dice, but also upon the configuration of Chance and Community Chest cards, which has a much larger state space. Besides this, if you roll doubles three times, you go to Jail, which increases the state space more. For more:

http://www.tkcs-collins.com/truman/monopoly/monopoly.shtml

sagacityhappens• 14 years ago

Being a true Markov, his history is irrelevant!

ScottBurson• 14 years ago

Easily the best joke in this discussion.

varjag• 14 years ago

Russia used Julian calendar up to 1918. If that was a date marked in the original calendar, it wasn't 100 years ago "this week".

sp332• 13 years ago

This is also why the October Revolution happened in November, depending on what calendar you use. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_revolution

hhuio• 13 years ago

Even today wikipedia mentions nothing of interdependence on probability...

jckt• 13 years ago

Slightly off-topic, but Brian Hayes (mentioned several times in the article) has a very good blog here: http://bit-player.org/

You've heard of Markov chains. But who was Markov?

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