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De Econometrist
De Econometrist neemt een statistische kijk op de wereld.
In other news
Lately, the front page of the Dutch newspapers has been dominated with burdensome news about the coronavirus, developments around Brexit or statements from Donald Trump. Yesterday, even a new story about the prosecution of Ridouan Taghi was featured on the NOS website. Although this is of course very relevant and important news, 2020 has had a lot of interesting and positive developments that are now overshadowed by articles surrounding the current number of deaths in China or other onerous reports. Therefore, I believe it is time to give some extra attention to a few promising […]
Estimated reading time: 4 minuten
How 3D printing is changing manufacturing
Recently I was inspired by seeing what other people have done with 3D printing to buy my very own one. After having used it for very basic things like pen holders, I started making bigger things. While printing I began to wonder what the economic impact of this technology is. Since these printers aren’t as fast as a paper printer, I had quite some time to wonder. First of all, it is hard to undersell how much this technology can help to prolong the life of a certain product. For example my vacuum cleaner: a […]
Estimated reading time: 3 minuten
Musical roads
Rumble strips are small bumps in the side of the road to alert drivers when they stray away from the middle of the driveway. Especially for people driving long roads at night, such a strip can be a life-saving instrument. If a tired driver slowly drowses away, he or she will be aroused by the annoying sound that the car makes when driving over these sleeper lines. Also people that are paying attention to their phone instead of the road may be stirred up by the strips. Did you know, however, that in many countries, […]
Estimated reading time: 3 minuten
The optimal rejection-phase of love
Do you need some help with finding the right lover or do you seek confirmation for your current love? Love is one of the most non-abstract phenomena one knows and as econometricians, there is only one thing we understand perfectly; mathematics. To help you understand love a little better, I will show you that equations and graphs can guide your love life. Lucky for you, Valentine’s day is this Friday, which will be the best opportunity to test if you understand the mathematics of love properly. Let me give you a hint: the magic number […]
Estimated reading time: 6 minuten
How algorithms can choose your date
Feeling spontaneous, the mayor of Groningen wants to help all singles in the city. He wants to do this by organizing a date for every single in town. Since he thinks that you are pretty smart, because you study econometrics, he gives you the job of making all the combinations for the dates. How would you do this? In this case, we assume that we know the preferences of everyone. So from every man, we get a list with a ranking of women he prefers and from every woman we get a list with a […]
Estimated reading time: 3 minuten
The Six Handshakes Rule
In 1994, four Albright college students created a game called “The six degrees of Kevin Bacon”. This game’s aim is to connect any actor in the Hollywood scene with the actor Kevin Bacon, using at most 5 actors with who they have worked (in)directly. The students came up with the idea after Kevin Bacon stated in an interview with Premiere magazine that “he had worked with everybody in Hollywood or someone who’s worked with them.” After the young students and Bacon were invited to a TV-show to explain their game, its popularity increased substantially. Even […]
Raadsel: kan jij deze dames uit elkaar halen?
Robert-Jan-Constantijn van Binsbergen tot Haerholte is dit jaar in Groningen begonnen met studeren en is meteen bij een studentenvereniging gegaan. Daar valt hem echter iets geks op: alle vrouwelijke leden van deze vereniging zien er bijna precies hetzelfde uit, en ze hebben maar twee haarkleuren: 85% van de dames is blond en 15% heeft donkerbruin haar. Wat ook opvallend is, is het feit dat maar liefst 20% van alle jongedames (zowel de blondines als de brunettes) haar haar in de andere kleur heeft geverfd. Robert heeft gehoord dat jij je statistiek vakken super succesvol had afgerond, […]
Estimated reading time: 1 minuut
Written by AI
It was Sunday the 26th of January 10 pm, I had one day left to submit my article for peer review. I was contemplating. Not knowing what to write about. I was staring at my computer screen. No unfamiliar websites. Just websites I had searched for before. Time flew. But suddenly I realized something. Something peculiar. Something odd. I remembered reading an article a couple of days ago about artificial intelligence (AI). The article explained how organizations including The Washington Post, The New York Times, Reuters, and Associated Press, made extensive use of AI to […]
The math behind the English language
Like many other languages, the English language is based on grammatical rules. It contains all parts to make a basic sentence, such as nouns, adverbs and verbs. All of this has not stayed the same over time. Scientists have known for decades now that every language evolves in striking similar ways to adapt to the needs of its users. Not only the words, but also the grammar change and mutate over time, where new versions slowly rise to take over the older ones. This development is not a bad thing, since if English had not […]
Academetrics: the math behind predicting Oscar winners
The biggest night of Hollywood is almost upon us! On the night of February 9th, the annual Academy Awards will be awarded. The biggest names of Hollywood will gather in the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles to celebrate yet another year of cinematic achievements. During the ceremony, 24 golden statuettes, known as an “Academy Award of Merit” or “Oscar”, will be awarded. Every year there is an incredible fuzz when the nominees are announced and the excitement lasts until the actual award ceremony. This makes you wonder whether or not this excitement is justified. The […]
Estimated reading time: 6 minuten
The danger of quantum computers
The idea of a quantum computer first arose in the late century. Richard Feynman was the first person to think of using the special quantum properties to solve difficult mathematical problems. A lot of progress has already been achieved. “Let’s see what the future of quantum computers has to offer.” A basic understanding of quantum computers All computers work in basically the same way. They receive an input of data, manipulate the data in some way and finally give an output. Quantum computers are no different. But what makes them so special? Quantum computers […]
21st-century discrimination
The past decade has been the decade of artificial intelligence. With the abundance of data that is generated every day, more and more decisions are made using data analytics and algorithms. The rise of AI in the 21st century has been swift and it has made an impact on almost every field. However, just as many good things, artificial intelligence also has a downside which came to light when in the 1980s some staff members of St. George’s Hospital Medical School noticed a lack of diversity among their students. They started an inquiry to investigate […]
Estimated reading time: 8 minuten
De Redactie
De redactie van De Econometrist bestaat momenteel uit 12 leden die samen een hechte groep vormen. Regelmatig onderneemt de groep leuke activiteiten. Als je alle redacteurs wilt zien kijk dan op de redactie pagina.
