Mihai Nica
@mihainica.bsky.social
Mathematician working on probability and ML at U of Guelph in Canada. I also make math videos at https://youtube.com/@MihaiNicaMath
My new video on how I found and proved the optimal strategy in the kids game "Guess Who?" youtu.be/_3RNB8eOSx0 . Turns out that viral Mark Rober video was not exactly correct....
The *BEST* "Guess Who?" strategy (Beyond binary search)
YouTube video by Dr Mihai Nica
youtu.be
November 21, 2025 at 8:39 PM
My new video on how I found and proved the optimal strategy in the kids game "Guess Who?" youtu.be/_3RNB8eOSx0 . Turns out that viral Mark Rober video was not exactly correct....
I'm experimenting in converting some of my YouTube math explainers to to blog form to see if there's any interest. Let me know what you think! publish.obsidian.md/nicam/YouTub...
The Math of Rolling with Advantage; What is the average maximum of several dice rolls? - Mihai Nica's Notes - Obsidian Publish
In the world of tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), the concept of "rolling with Advantage" is a popular mechanic. This works by rolling a 20-sided die *twice* and taking the m…
publish.obsidian.md
June 26, 2025 at 6:35 PM
I'm experimenting in converting some of my YouTube math explainers to to blog form to see if there's any interest. Let me know what you think! publish.obsidian.md/nicam/YouTub...
New video on an unexpected appearance of the Fibonacci numbers in a probability problem about a random walk youtu.be/g8aA76pNBkg
A Pentagon, a Random Walk, and... Fibonacci?!
YouTube video by Dr Mihai Nica
youtu.be
April 30, 2025 at 12:05 PM
New video on an unexpected appearance of the Fibonacci numbers in a probability problem about a random walk youtu.be/g8aA76pNBkg
@hankgreen.bsky.social Love the new 4x3 word game! I thought of it as a Venn Diagram (see image). This way, you can make other patterns, e.g. I made an "outer square". I created an app where you can play & make more here marimo.app?slug=708we4 and a 6 minute YouTube tutorial youtu.be/VVunnwwupT4
April 20, 2025 at 4:40 AM
@hankgreen.bsky.social Love the new 4x3 word game! I thought of it as a Venn Diagram (see image). This way, you can make other patterns, e.g. I made an "outer square". I created an app where you can play & make more here marimo.app?slug=708we4 and a 6 minute YouTube tutorial youtu.be/VVunnwwupT4
Episode 1 of Parlor Room on @dropout.tv is an absolute triumph. Wavelength is one of my favourite games in real life, and I had just as much fun watching y'all as playing it myself. I was laughing nonstop the whole episode. Can't wait for the rest of the season Becca! @thebeccascott.bsky.social
🚨 The series premiere of Parlor Room is out now on Dropout!
Featuring host @thebeccascott.bsky.social, and guests: @paulrobalino.bsky.social, @electrolemon.bsky.social, Raphael Chestang, @jordanmyr1ck.bsky.social, and Jess Ross.
Featuring host @thebeccascott.bsky.social, and guests: @paulrobalino.bsky.social, @electrolemon.bsky.social, Raphael Chestang, @jordanmyr1ck.bsky.social, and Jess Ross.
April 19, 2025 at 12:16 AM
Episode 1 of Parlor Room on @dropout.tv is an absolute triumph. Wavelength is one of my favourite games in real life, and I had just as much fun watching y'all as playing it myself. I was laughing nonstop the whole episode. Can't wait for the rest of the season Becca! @thebeccascott.bsky.social
With Svante Janson and Simon Segert, we just posted out latest in the Alice HH vs BoB HT saga on the arxiv! arxiv.org/abs/2503.19035 We generalize to strings other than HH or HT. I also made a YouTube video a while ago giving the general idea youtu.be/_ufR0fOFO-E?...
The generalized Alice HH vs Bob HT problem
In 2024, Daniel Litt posed a simple coinflip game pitting Alice's "Heads-Heads" vs Bob's "Heads-Tails": who is more likely to win if they score 1 point per occurrence of their substring in a sequence ...
arxiv.org
March 26, 2025 at 12:35 PM
With Svante Janson and Simon Segert, we just posted out latest in the Alice HH vs BoB HT saga on the arxiv! arxiv.org/abs/2503.19035 We generalize to strings other than HH or HT. I also made a YouTube video a while ago giving the general idea youtu.be/_ufR0fOFO-E?...
Happy Pi Day!!! I made a probability proof of why Pi is in the bell curve. Along the way we find an interesting formula for the sum of squares X^2+Y^2 for two normal random variables. youtu.be/sN-ZQ3rohsY
π day 2025: Why is Pi in the Bell Curve?
YouTube video by Dr Mihai Nica
youtu.be
March 14, 2025 at 10:51 AM
Happy Pi Day!!! I made a probability proof of why Pi is in the bell curve. Along the way we find an interesting formula for the sum of squares X^2+Y^2 for two normal random variables. youtu.be/sN-ZQ3rohsY
New video explainer on the Reinforcment Learning Algorithm from DeepSeek's R1 paper (Group Relative Policy Optimization). It uses Triangle Creatures as a cute example; I tried to make super accessible, so even if you've never done RL stuff before I hope you'll still enjoy!
youtu.be/wXEvvg4YJ9I
youtu.be/wXEvvg4YJ9I
DeepSeek's learning algorithm explained with Triangle Creatures
YouTube video by Dr Mihai Nica
youtu.be
February 22, 2025 at 6:29 PM
New video explainer on the Reinforcment Learning Algorithm from DeepSeek's R1 paper (Group Relative Policy Optimization). It uses Triangle Creatures as a cute example; I tried to make super accessible, so even if you've never done RL stuff before I hope you'll still enjoy!
youtu.be/wXEvvg4YJ9I
youtu.be/wXEvvg4YJ9I
I used the DeepSeek Reinforcement Learning GRPO algorithm to train a triangle creature. The edges are "muscles": red=extend, blue=contract; vertices are "mass pumps": red=grow, blue=shrink. Reward = DeltaX - |DeltaY|. Full video incoming: Subscribe at www.youtube.com/@MihaiNicaMath
February 1, 2025 at 10:05 PM
I used the DeepSeek Reinforcement Learning GRPO algorithm to train a triangle creature. The edges are "muscles": red=extend, blue=contract; vertices are "mass pumps": red=grow, blue=shrink. Reward = DeltaX - |DeltaY|. Full video incoming: Subscribe at www.youtube.com/@MihaiNicaMath
New video about the average maximum of rolling several dice! Surprisingly, this is related to Faulhabers general formula for the sum of powers (e.g sum of squares, sum of cubes etc) youtu.be/0d5gCzxD0sg
Stand-up Maths Max-of-Dice Conjecture (Finally) Proven
YouTube video by Dr Mihai Nica
youtu.be
December 29, 2024 at 6:11 PM
New video about the average maximum of rolling several dice! Surprisingly, this is related to Faulhabers general formula for the sum of powers (e.g sum of squares, sum of cubes etc) youtu.be/0d5gCzxD0sg
Update: Today my son said, "Dad, if you solve the Riemann hypothesis, is it ok if I have the amillion dollars?" I'm starting to think he's just in it for the money
This morning my 5 year old son wants to "work on a special math project". But then he tells me it's the "ReeMan hypothesis" and that if we solve it we'll get "a hundred dollar prize and we'll be rich". Fortunately he has switched to Lego before we got too far into it
December 10, 2024 at 10:11 PM
Update: Today my son said, "Dad, if you solve the Riemann hypothesis, is it ok if I have the amillion dollars?" I'm starting to think he's just in it for the money
Here's a YouTube version of a short talk I gave at a Vector Institute workshop last week: youtu.be/_ufR0fOFO-E . It's like an extended trailer for this NeurIps workshop paper openreview.net/forum?id=92q.., where I use the Alice HH vs Bob HT coinflips problem to motivate the math
December 10, 2024 at 12:39 PM
Here's a YouTube version of a short talk I gave at a Vector Institute workshop last week: youtu.be/_ufR0fOFO-E . It's like an extended trailer for this NeurIps workshop paper openreview.net/forum?id=92q.., where I use the Alice HH vs Bob HT coinflips problem to motivate the math
"In the 90s, people were worried about the Ozone layer and that never became a problem! Therefore, global warming is overblown". But the ozone crisis was solved by international cooperation, it should be a model of how to address climate change. See this excellent 4 minute video youtu.be/lOQqGKt52X8
How To Solve Every Global Crisis
YouTube video by MinuteEarth
youtu.be
December 8, 2024 at 8:37 PM
"In the 90s, people were worried about the Ozone layer and that never became a problem! Therefore, global warming is overblown". But the ozone crisis was solved by international cooperation, it should be a model of how to address climate change. See this excellent 4 minute video youtu.be/lOQqGKt52X8
Reposted by Mihai Nica
December 6, 2024 at 3:36 AM
Reposted by Mihai Nica
The above was a survey talk by Hassan Ashtiani, on distribution learning.
Next is @mihainica.bsky.social, talking about this paper on Gaussian approximation in NNs: openreview.net/forum?id=92q.... This Twitter poll by @littmath.bsky.social makes another appearance!
Next is @mihainica.bsky.social, talking about this paper on Gaussian approximation in NNs: openreview.net/forum?id=92q.... This Twitter poll by @littmath.bsky.social makes another appearance!
November 28, 2024 at 3:44 PM
The above was a survey talk by Hassan Ashtiani, on distribution learning.
Next is @mihainica.bsky.social, talking about this paper on Gaussian approximation in NNs: openreview.net/forum?id=92q.... This Twitter poll by @littmath.bsky.social makes another appearance!
Next is @mihainica.bsky.social, talking about this paper on Gaussian approximation in NNs: openreview.net/forum?id=92q.... This Twitter poll by @littmath.bsky.social makes another appearance!
Reposted by Mihai Nica
Stopping that one co-author from flaming reviewer 2 in the rebuttal.
November 24, 2024 at 3:41 AM
Stopping that one co-author from flaming reviewer 2 in the rebuttal.
Reposted by Mihai Nica
[voiceover by Sheldon Axler]:
November 23, 2024 at 10:22 PM
[voiceover by Sheldon Axler]:
Fun probability problem: pick two points uniformly at random from the unit square. How far apart are they on average? Turns out it's close to 0.5. Is there an easy way to see if it's more than or less than 0.5?
I have a cute proof that it's >√(2)/3=0.4714... and <2√(2)/5=0.566.. but out of room!
I have a cute proof that it's >√(2)/3=0.4714... and <2√(2)/5=0.566.. but out of room!
November 21, 2024 at 9:03 PM
Fun probability problem: pick two points uniformly at random from the unit square. How far apart are they on average? Turns out it's close to 0.5. Is there an easy way to see if it's more than or less than 0.5?
I have a cute proof that it's >√(2)/3=0.4714... and <2√(2)/5=0.566.. but out of room!
I have a cute proof that it's >√(2)/3=0.4714... and <2√(2)/5=0.566.. but out of room!
This morning my 5 year old son wants to "work on a special math project". But then he tells me it's the "ReeMan hypothesis" and that if we solve it we'll get "a hundred dollar prize and we'll be rich". Fortunately he has switched to Lego before we got too far into it
November 20, 2024 at 1:01 PM
This morning my 5 year old son wants to "work on a special math project". But then he tells me it's the "ReeMan hypothesis" and that if we solve it we'll get "a hundred dollar prize and we'll be rich". Fortunately he has switched to Lego before we got too far into it
New video! It's an animated picture Proof of a Putnam probability problem youtu.be/KIZZUbRA6Sw
Putnam Probability: A Picture Proof
YouTube video by Dr Mihai Nica
youtu.be
November 17, 2024 at 2:24 PM
New video! It's an animated picture Proof of a Putnam probability problem youtu.be/KIZZUbRA6Sw