Alternative Forms of The Problem
An interesting related problem, somewhat similar to the Birthday paradox is that of determining the size of the input set so that we have a probability of one half that there is a solution, under the assumption that each element in the set is randomly selected with uniform distribution between 1 and some given value.
The problem is interesting in that the solution can be counter-intuitive (not unlike the Birthday paradox). For example, with elements randomly selected in between 1 and one million, many people's intuition is that the answer is in the thousands, tens, or even hundreds of thousands, whereas the correct answer is approximately 23 (see Birthday problem#Partition problem for details).
Read more about this topic: Partition Problem
Famous quotes containing the words alternative, forms and/or problem:
“Education must, then, be not only a transmission of culture but also a provider of alternative views of the world and a strengthener of the will to explore them.”
—Jerome S. Bruner (20th century)
“Pervading nationalism imposes its dominion on man today in many different forms and with an aggressiveness that spares no one.... The challenge that is already with us is the temptation to accept as true freedom what in reality is only a new form of slavery.”
—Pope John Paul II (b. 1920)
“The thinking person has the strange characteristic to like to create a fantasy in the place of the unsolved problem, a fantasy that stays with the person even when the problem has been solved and truth made its appearance.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)