St. Petersburg Paradox

occupation / innovator as

university teacher

nationality

Swiss

scientific organization

Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences

mathematician

Royal Society

innovator in the field of

probability theory

rector of the University of Basel

is a thought experiment of double or nothing which one should arguably play at any price if offered the opportunity but which few actually would.

Assuming the game can continue as long as the coin toss results in heads and in particular that the casino has unlimited resources, this sum grows without bound and so the expected win for repeated play is an infinite amount of money. Considering nothing but the expected value of the net change in one's monetary wealth, one should therefore play the game at any price if offered the opportunity. Yet, in published descriptions of the game, many people expressed disbelief in the result. Martin quotes Ian Hacking as saying 'few of us would pay even $25 to enter such a game' and says most commentators would agree.[3] The paradox is the discrepancy between what people seem willing to pay to enter the game and the infinite expected value.' (wikipedia)

Nicolas BernoulliThinkers

Nicolas Bernoulli