The game of "Chutes & Ladders" is a child's board game with simple rules for moving across the board. However, many of the probabilities associated with the game are not so easy to ascertain. For example, what is the probability of reaching the "finish" square in fewer than 20 moves.
In this talk I will explain a method for determining many of these difficult probabilities. This method can then be used to answer many questions that arise in finance, biology, queuing theory, and numerous other fields.
This talk is accessible at the sophomore level and above. A very basic understanding of probability and matrix multiplication is required.
Daniel Ghezzi is currently studying for a PhD at SUNY Binghamton with research focused on statistics. He will be defending his thesis this semester. He received his B.A. in Mathematics from the Pennsylvania State University (1978) and his M.A. from SUNY Binghamton (1998).