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2025-11-18 10:40:09 UTC
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Jean Abou Samra (new account) on Nostr: nprofile1q…aztfm Since we are chatting, I might as well add tangentially that it is ...

Since we are chatting, I might as well add tangentially that it is possible to stumble upon independent statements even in recreational mathematics (!). I learnt the following cute example from David Madore:

Consider the following game where Eve and Adam are allied, but cannot communicate aside from agreeing on a strategy in advance. Eve receives two distinct natural numbers and chooses one of them. Adam receives this number and makes a finite number of guesses. They win when the second number was in the guesses.

Easy exercise: exhibit a winning strategy for Eve and Adam.

Now modify the game to replace natural numbers with real numbers.

Exercise: show that Eve and Adam have no winning strategy.

Further modify the game so Eve receives *three* real numbers and chooses *two* of them which are transmitted to Adam. He must make finitely many guesses for the third one.

Challenging exercise: show that Eve and Adam have a winning strategy if and only if the continuum hypothesis holds.