g.h. hardys golng adventure（g.h.哈迪golng冒险）.pdf

G.H. Hardyís GolÖng Adventure Roland Minton A little-known paper by G.H. Hardy addresses a basic question in golf: which of two golfers of equal ability has the advantage, the more consistent golfer or the more erratic golfer? Hardy models golf as a sequence of independent shots, each of which can be normal, excellent or bad. In this paper, the distributions of hole scores for simulated golfers using Hardyís rules are computed. The distribu- tions enable us to explore Hardyís basic question in di§erent golÖng contests. There are very few sentences in print that contain both the word golf and the name G.H. Hardy. Hardy (1877-1947) was one of the most proliÖc and ináuential mathematicians of the early twentieth century. His book A Mathe- maticianís Apology [1] makes the case for mathematics as a pure discipline of austere beauty and uncompromising standards. He wrote, The mathemati- cianís patterns, like those of the painterís or the poetís, must be beautiful, the ideas, like the colours or the words, must Öt together in a harmonious way. There is no permanent place in the world for ugly mathematics. He found little beauty in applied mathematics. The assumptions made by applied mathemati- cians, tied to the laws of physics and other mundane concerns, are not always motivated by mathematical curiosity and the results are often more pragmatic than inspirational. Given his background as a pure mathematician par excellence, his publica- tion in the December 1945 issue of The Mathematical Gazette is singular. There, on pages 226 and 227, is an article titled A Mathematical Theorem about Golf by G.H. Hardy [2]. He introduces a simple model of golÖng and provides a pre- liminary analysis. Here, we discuss H