March 26, 2019 Tuesday
Bedtime Story
"Some Practical Questions"
One of the authors of this seminal paper of
1962 namely Lloyd Shapely would much later in 2012 go on to win the 2012 Nobel
Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences “for the theory of stable allocations and
the practice of market design.”
The other author David Gale passed away in
2008 in Berkeley at the ripe age of 86 – most mathematicians against the
popular belief live long and rather pleasant life – where he was professor
emeritus.
His legacy lives in the form of
mathematical works which to most us most of us would not be comprehendible with
just one exception.
He had developed a website called MathSite
where one can learn important mathematical concepts for anyone interested.
I shall live its link for your perusal.
We have come a long way from the time since
Gale made this website for there are now far better websites and YouTube
channels all over the internet that you can use and watch to get a decent
understanding of mathematics even if you are an ordinary and average ape like
me.
It is very interesting for me to note that
unlike mathematical papers that are generally very abstract this one apparently
was directed to solve the college admission problem faced by the resident
doctors of the United States.
If not solve at least look into the
possible solvability of the problem that existed then and was a serious issue
with the resident doctors.
It is fascinating by itself that a couple
of mathematicians and economists decided to work on the problem that concerned
young budding doctors.
The authors devote nearly 3 pages of their
paper describing the real world application of their algorithm to the college
admissions and the practical hindrances that one might likely encounter if one
were to implement this system.
This part of the paper where the authors
deal the subject of implementing their algorithm in the actual National
Residency Matching Program is titled as “Some Practical questions” which I
would like to quote for you.
I think it is worth reading it through as
it reveals the intention of the authors behind this study.
“The theorems we have presented are based
on a mathematically “constructive” procedure for arriving at an optimal
assignment.
It may well be asked how close this
procedure is to a truly practicable method for actually assigning real students
to real colleges.
We shall mention briefly some of the
difficulties that would have to be overcome.
On the face of it, our “deferred
acceptance” method involves a great deal of communication back and forth if the
description we have given is to be followed literally, on a nationwide scale.
The time required, if not the cost, would
be prohibitive.”
Stay tuned to the voice of an
average story storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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