Analysis of a Bankruptcy Problem from the Talmud
Time and place
1 PM on Thursday, October 2nd, 2008;
Joseph Bak (CCNY)
Abstract
The Talmud records an enigmatic ruling concerning the division of an estate in three different cases of bankruptcy as well as a debate concerning how these divisions, which seem contradictory, can be understood. The discussion in the Talmud ends with no clear conclusion. More than 1500 years later, however, Prof. Robert Aumann, a co-winner of the 2005 Nobel Award in Economics and a 1950 graduate of CCNY, offered an interesting insight into the three cases and a compelling approach to understanding the principles which guided the author of the ruling.
This talk should be accessible to a wide audience and will include some ideas from game-theory, physics, and Talmudic analysis as well as mathematics.
