The Problem
of Points was the math question Pascal was trying to solve when he started
his research into the binomial coefficients. Consider a two player
game of chance where each round a point is awarded to one of the players;
the game is won by the first person to have a lead of n points; as
the game was played in Pascal's era, you had to have a lead of 12 points
to win. What if the game has to be stopped before someone gets to 12
points? Is there a way to figure out what an 8 point lead should be
worth? What if the game of chance isn't a 50-50 proposition, but instead
one player has an advantage?
This program
uses brute force to solve the problem instead of Pascal's clever methods;
the user can change the probability of the player in question to win a point,
how much of a lead the player has and the number of points needed to win.
The computer then runs a simulation, and when the number of unresolved
games gets tiny enough, publishes the result.
If the box below is just a grey rectangle,
you can put Java on your machine for free through this link.
