4 ideas and puzzles from Joseph Bertrand, each explained in a minute and credited to the original work. Free on Savvy.
Three identical boxes each hold two coins: one box holds two gold coins, one holds two silver, and one holds one of each. You pick a box at random and draw one coin without looking…
— Joseph Bertrand, Bertrand's box paradox
In the Bertrand model, just two firms selling an identical product and competing purely on price drive that price all the way down to marginal cost, wiping out economic profit — th…
— Joseph Bertrand, Book review of Cournot's Recherches
Draw a circle with an equilateral triangle inscribed inside it. Now pick a chord of the circle completely at random. What's the probability the chord is longer than a side of the t…
— Joseph Bertrand, Bertrand paradox (probability)
There are three boxes: one holding two gold coins, one holding two silver coins, and one holding one of each. You pick a box at random and draw one coin from it, which turns out to…
— Joseph Bertrand, Calcul des probabilites