Occam's Razor

Occam’s Razor

On page 90 of Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, Occam’s law is not only mentioned, but described. This is what is says:

: (1) “And it shows that something called Occam’s razor is true. And Occam’s razor is not a razor that men shave with but a Law, and it says
L Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.
Which is Latin and it means:
p No more things should be presumed t exit than are absolutely necessary.
( (2) Which means that a murder victim is usually killed by someone known to them and fairies are made out of paper and you cant talk to someone who is dead.”

First of all, Occam’s razor was invented by an English logician and Franciscan friar, William of Ockham, in the 14th century. Paraphrased, this theory means "All things being equal, the simplest solution tends to be the best one," or even simpler said, “The simplest answer is usually the correct answer.”

This is the logic used by Chris in the second part of the quote. A person who is connected to another will know that persons flaws, therefore can want to commit murder. On the other hand, a stranger would not want to kill someone they don’t know; there is less of a motive. The ‘easiest’ solution is that an associated person would kill Wellington, not a mere stranger.

Also, Chris is saying that the Cottingly Fairies, referenced on page 88, are in fact non existent, and that the people that claim to have seen them are those who made them out of paper.

And lastly, he uses this complex theory to suggest that his mother is in fact dead, because according to the theory, the easiest possibility is right, which is that his mother is dead. This is all that Chris knows. He is unable to lie, therefore he is unable to decipher when he is being lied to.

The Monty Hall problem

The Monty Hall problem pg. 65 (Janice L, March 30th, 2008)

Christopher Boone, the protagonist of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, mentions the Monty Hall Problem in chapter 89. He has a fascination with math and science problems. In the book, he discusses and proves that the controversial answer Marilyn vos Savant offers to the Monty Hall Problem is in fact correct. Craig F. Whitaker sent the problem to vos Savant’s Ask Marilyn column in the Parade Magazine in 1990. Vos Savant supposedly has the highest IQ in the world. The problem is based on the American game show Let’s Make a Deal, hosted by Monty Hall.


Marilyn vos Savant Monty Hall

The Monty Hall Problem, which concerns probability, is this:

You are on a game show on television. On this game show, the idea is to win a car as a prize. The game show host shows you 3 doors. There is a car behind one of the doors and there are goats behind the other 2 doors. You pick the door you think contains the car. Then the game show host opens one of the doors you did not pick to show a goat. He/she offers you the opportunity to change your mind and pick the other unopened door. What would you do?

Marilyn vos Savant answered that you should change and choose the other door because there is a 2 in 3 chance that the car will be behind the final door. Many people, including math professors, wrote to Marilyn vos Savant and told her that her answer was incorrect. They followed their intuition and believed that there is a 50-50 chance of choosing the door with the car after the first door with the goat is opened. However, Christopher provides a proof of the problem and confirms that Marilyn von Savant’s response was correct.

There are 3 possible outcomes if a player is to switch doors:
1. The player originally chooses the door with the car. If he/she switches, he/she switches to a door with a goat.
2. The player originally chooses the door with Goat A. If he/she switches, he/she switches to a door with the car because the door with Goat B is already opened.
3. The player originally chooses the door with Goat B. If he/she switches, he/she switches to a door with the car because the door with Goat A is already opened.
Out of these 3 possible situations, 2 allow the player to win the car.

If the player did not switch doors, these would be the 3 possible outcomes:
1. The player originally chooses the door with the car. He/she wins the car.
2. The player originally chooses the door with Goat A. He/she loses the game.
3. The player originally chooses the door with Goat B. He/she loses the game.
Out of these 3 possible situations, only 1 allows the players to win the car.

Clearly, Marilyn vos Savant was correct in saying that the player should always change his/her mind when given the opportunity.

This diagram illustrates the different outcomes of the game:


Christopher uses the example of the Monty Hall Problem to demonstrate his love for math, numbers, and logic. Based on the responses to the problem, he states that many people uses their intuition to make decisions, but it can sometimes lead people to make the wrong ones. Therefore, logic is much more reliable, and it can help people to work out the correct answer.

For further information and more in-depth explanations, go to: pages 62 to 65, The Monty Hall Problem Web Page or Wikipedia.

Jack the Ripper

Jack the Ripper pg. 52 (Christopher M, March 28th, 2008)
In the year 1888 and between the months of August and November the White chapel area of London England were haunted by the infamous mass murderer name Jack the ripper. The assailant who was known also as the “Leather Apron” stalked the streets of Old London town and waited for the women who make money as prostitutes to come. The murderer killed 5 women in the time of 4 months and was never caught, not once. The case of Jack the ripper has evolved into a theme for authors and generated new movies for the cinema and heated debates over who really pull these horrible murders over 100 years ago. Christopher Boone would be quite fascinated with the case of Jack Ripper because of his interest in mystery. This case would be just like the books of Sherlock Holmes and likes to try and point out the obvious and solve mysteries like the mystery of Mr.Shear’s dog.

Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness pg 52 (Emily F: March 28th, 2008)
Heart in the Darkness is a novella by Joseph Conrad and was published in 1902. Narrated by an unnamed character, Heart in the Darkness tells the story of a search of the enigmatic Kurtz by five men aboard a ship called Nellie. These five men trade sea stories to pass the time as they travel into the heart of the African jungle. The main character is Charlie Marlow and soon enough he is thrown into a psychological and physical journey as he discovers how the Kurtz had gained his power and influence over the local people. This discovery leave’s Marlow struggling to comprehend his experience and forces him to question not only his own nature and values, but also the nature and values of his society. However, before Marlow begins his story, the narrator explains the history of exploration and conquest of the Kurtz. He mentions Sir Francis Drake and his ship the Golden Wind, which had travelled around the globe by the end of the 16th century, and Sir John Franklin, who disappeared on his expedition to North America in the Arctic Ocean during the 19th century.

Joseph Conrad is one of the most recognized 20th century English novelists. Born on December 3rd, 1857, Conrad was originally named Jozef Konrad Nalecz Korzeniowski. His father, a writer and translator, was of Polish nobility but political movements against the Russian Oppression led to his exile. Conrad became an orphan at a young age and was then raised by his uncle. At the age of 17, he set out for the sea, an experience that he expressed in his fictional tales. The novella Heart in the Darkness is arguably his most distinguished and influential piece of work that also inspired a motion picture Apocalypse Now. Having accomplished thirteen novels, two volumes of memoirs, and twenty-eight short stories, Joseph Conrad died on August 3, 1924 in England.

In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Christopher Boone refers to Joseph Conrad’s novella when he describes how short stories, although may not have a lot in quantity, can still be just as good as longer ones. Christopher Boone first hears about the novella from his mentor Siobhan.

Black Holes as a singularity

Black Holes as a singularity pg. 32 (Justin L: March 28th, 2008)
In the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Christopher Boone constantly exclaims how he loves science. He is especially intrigued with black holes because he thinks he knows what they are but in reality, nobody does. It is believed that a black hole occurs towards the end of an enormous star’s life after it performs a supernova. Following the explosion, the core of the star (where the gravitational pull occurs) forms the exceptionally dense black hole. Since it has such a large mass, the force of gravity exerted is greater then anything known to man. Light cannot even escape the gravity, which explains why no human being can see a black hole. But we can record it when it does occur because stars that orbit it emit certain gases once it enters the funnel of the black hole. The gases that are released are heated up due to the friction, and release new energy in forms of x-rays. Our satellites in space can pick up these x-rays which makes it possible for humans to detect black holes, but not physically see them. The first recorded black hole, according to NASA, was the binary star Cygnus X-1 in 1971. The object discovered couldn’t have been a normal neutron star because its mass was too great. According to Christopher, a black hole is also a singularity meaning “it is impossible to find out what is on the other side…” (pg. 32) I believe Christopher is so fascinated by this topic because it challenges him to think even though there is no definite answer yet.

Sherlock Homes and Doctor Watson

Sherlock Homes and Doctor Watson pg. 25 (Jake W. March 28th, 2008) Sherlock Holmesand Dr.John Hamish Watson are a famous pair of detectives created by a British author and doctor in 1887. The author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is a brilliant man and his works are known by people around the world. Holmes and Watson are detectives in London and are known for their observations and logic to solve cases. These two crime fighters have appeared in novels such as A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of the Four, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Valley of Fear and a series of many other short stories. Christopher Bonne enjoys these two as they solve mysteries just like he wants to solve the mystery of Mrs. Shears's dead dog. He also likes the name of Holmes and Watson as their full name adds up to a prime number if you give each letter a value from 1 to 26(A=1,B=2, etc.). Christopher Boone enjoys prime numbers because they are real and cannot vary, making him feel safe.

Mind Sweeper

pg. 20 (Christopher W: March 26th, 2008)

Prime Numbers and Code Writing for the CIA

Prime Numbers for CIA Code writing pg. 12 (Andrew D: March 26th, 2008)As Christopher tells us, "prime numbers are useful for writing codes, and in America they are classified as Military Material and if you find one over 100 digits long you have to tell the CIA and they buy it off you for $10,000" (p. 12).Prime Numbers are special numbers that are only divisible by themselves and one. Finding such a long prime number would be very difficult, because there is no known pattern for finding prime numbers. This is why "it would not be a very good way of making a living" (p. 12).Due to the fact that the CIA uses these numbers in codes, there are certain prime numbers that are considered "Illegal Primes". These are prime numbers that the CIA owns, and are therefore illegal to publish. Weather or not somebody would actually be punished is open for interpretation because a case has yet to appear. Another reason that a prime number may be considered illegal is because it may, if used properly, be used to break encryptions on DVD's or other copyrighted material.The codes that Christopher refers to are actually encryption schemes used to encode messages. Two prime numbers are used to generate the code, and the code's difficulty to break increases with the size of the prime numbers. This method is widely known as RSA (a name based on the initials of it's creator). The mathematics required to understand (let alone use) RSA are incredibly complex, and are therefore facilitated by the use of a computer.The CIA will buy such a prime number from you for $10000 because if they are in possession of such a large prime number that nobody else knows about, they will theoretically have an unbreakable (or at least very difficult to break) code.RSA, however, is not the only method of encoding using Prime numbers, just the most simple. The general method of encoding using prime numbers is known as Public Key encryption systems.

The Apollo Space Mission

1. The Apollo Space Mission pg. 2 (Trevor W:March 26th, 2008) The Apollo Space Mission was first developed in 1960 under NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration. It was intended to meet the goal of the United Stats former president, John F. Kennedy’s words, “landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth". This goal was achieved in July of 1969 during Apollo 11. The Apollo missions continued on into the early 70’s trying to achieve its goal of exploring the moon. To date the Apollo mission has landed 6 successful times on the moon up until 2007. The mission was named after the Greek God of the sun. It can be argued that the Apollo missions were some of NASA’s finest times during the 20th century. This mission was the United State’s reaction to Dwight Eisenhower’s Space Race. And later, Kennedy responded to this and that is when Apollo was started. There are several types of missions that had to be undertaken in order to achieve NASA’s goal: • Unmanned Command/Service Module (CSM) test • Unmanned Lunar Module (LM) test • Manned CSM in low Earth orbit • Manned CSM and LM in low Earth orbit • Manned CSM and LM in an elliptical Earth orbit with an apogee of 4600 mi (7400 km) • Manned CSM and LM in lunar orbit • Manned lunar landing All of these missions had to be completed in order, one after the other. In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Christopher Boone refers being happy to The Apollo Space Missions. He is learning how to read people’s facial expressions and the happy facial expression is how he is when he is reading about Apollo Missions. Apollo Space Missions can also be related to Curious because Chris wants to become an astronaut when he is older for a job. He thinks that he will be good at it because he can handle small spaces and to be in a space shuttle you have to live in small spaces. Also, his mother thinks that if he becomes an astronaut it will be his chance to lead a normal life and their problems will go away.

Change of plans, grade 10s!

Hi everyone,

I was hoping we might be able to continue with the wikipedia entries but they have chosen to delete the work as our assigments do not conform to what the site was intended for. I am still trying to figure out how this new blog is going to work. I think you may all need to sign up for Gmail accounts in order to post. I will keep you informed with the proper procedure. Thanks for your flexiblity while we are trying new things. In the mean time, if you have a research project, send it to me and I will post for you.

Thanks again to Trevor for going first! It was a great job, and I was given information I did not know!

Ms V

Ms. V's Grade 10 English Class 2007

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Reference Guide

The following topics will be covered by Ms. Vincent's Grade 10 English class over the next few weeks. The reference guide will help you to navigate the many mathematical, scientific, literary and pop culture references in Mark Haddon's novel. Stay tuned for your classmate's contributions to our HTS blog!
Check out Ms. V's website at http://www2.hts.on.ca/senior/dvincent/ENG2D/course_index.htm

Example for students: Christopher Boone, the fifteen year old autistic narrator and protagonist likes prime numbers. Christopher has Asperger's Syndrome and is a mathematical savant, and for him, "prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them." A prime number, of course, is a number that is divisible only by two integers-itself and one. Thus, 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19 and so on are prime numbers, while 4, 6, 9, 12, 15, 16, 18, 20, etc. are not. For example, if we list the factors of 28, we have 1, 2, 4, 7, 14, and 28. That's six factors. If we list the factors of 29, we only have 1 and 29. That's two factors. So we say that 29 is a prime number, but 28 isn't. Note that the definition of a prime number doesn't allow 1 to be a prime number: 1 only has one factor, namely 1. Prime numbers have exactly two factors, not "at most two" or anything like that. When a number has more than two factors it is called a composite number. How does this connect to Christopher? Christopher makes a connection with prime numbers because they are logical, have a definite answer, and two factors. There is a finite solution with nothing more, nothing less. See pg. 61 of Curious for explanation.




10.Marilyn vos Savant and Ask Marilyn pg. 62

11.Dune, Blake 7 and Close Encounters of the Third Kind pg. 69 (Dean P, March 30th,2008)

12. The Hound of the Baskervilles pg. 69 (Alex S: March 30th, 2008)

13. Red Herrings pg. 71 (Ronald S: March 30th, 2008)

14. The Masqueraders pg. 77 (Jake K: April 3rd, 2008)

15. The Case of the Cottingley fairies pg. 88 (Anisha M, April 3rd, 2008)

16. Doctor Who pg. 89 (Anthony S: April 3rd, 2008)

17. Occam’s Razor.pg. 90 (Cassie M: April 3rd, 2008)

18. Chaos by James Gleick pg. 96 (Tom F, April 5th, 2008)

19. Star Trek: The Next Generation pg. 118 (Michael G: April 5th, 2008)

20. Orion, Lepus, Taurus and Gemini pg. 125 (Stefano C, April 5th, 2008)

21 Red Dwarfs pg 126 (Sabah K: April 11th, 2008)

22 Inverse Proportion pg. 136 (Rasika S: April 11th, 2008)

23. Conway’s Soldiers pg. 146 (Veronica T, April 11th, 2008

24. Three Conditions for Life on Earth pg. 164 (Jessica L: April 11th, 2008

25. Blade Runner pg. 198 (Carolyn R, April 11th)
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