An Experimental (yet fully rigorous!) Study of a certain "Measure Of Disarray" that 12-year Noga Alon Proved was always Even
Shalosh B. Ekhad, Doron Zeilberger · arXiv (Cornell University) · 2021
We study in depth a certain permutation statistic that was the subject of a brilliant insight by 12-year-old Noga Alon. Our approach is purely empirical and experimental, yet it is fully rigorous, thereby debunking, yet another time, the myth that mathematics is always a deductive science. This revised version contains three postscripts describing improvements pointed out by Stoyan Dimitrov, Kyle Petersen, and Martin Rubey.