Monte Carlo Club

Feb 3, 2017 "US Presidents" (Due 2/10/2017)

• Download
  File:Presidents.txt
  : 1st column is the order, 2nd column is the name, the 3rd column is the year of inauguration; tab-separated
• Your job is to create an R, Perl, or Python script called “us-presidents”, which will

1. Read the table
2. Store the original/correct order
3. Shuffle/permute the rows and record the new order
4. Count the number of matching orders
5. Repeat Steps 3-4 for a 1000 times
6. Plot histogram or barplot (better) to show distribution of matching counts
7. Hint: For R, use the sample() function. For Perl, use the rand() function.

Feb 10, 2017 "Dating" (Due 2/17/2017)

• Problem: What is the optimal time point when one should stop dating more people and settle on a mate choice (and live with the decision)

1. The problem could be investigated by assuming that there is a pool of 10 potential mates, ranked by 1-10 (high being the most desirable; ranking hidden to you)
2. You may only date one individual at a time
3. For each date, you have to make decision either to accept and stop further search, or reject and move on to the next candidate
4. You cannot go back to reach previously rejected candidates
5. Simulate stoppage points of 1-10
6. For each point, obtain the probability of finding the perfect mate from a simulated search for 100 times
7. Plot barplot of probability versus stoppage points.

Feb 17, 2017 "Birthdays" (Due 2/24/2017)

1. Randomly select N individuals and record their B-days
2. Count the B-days shared by two or more individuals
3. Repeat (for each N) 100 times
4. Vary N from 10 to 100, increment by 10
5. Plot matching counts (Y-axis) versus N (x-axis), with either a stripchart or boxplot, or both