Skip to main content

Games with a Continuum of Strategies

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
  • 1968 Accesses

Part of the book series: International Series in Operations Research & Management Science ((ISOR,volume 201))

Abstract

It is not unusual to encounter games where the number of available pure strategies is infinite. Any game where the two players each select a time for action is an example, or a submarine can dive to any depth up to some maximum limit. Intervals of real numbers can of course be artificially subdivided to make the number of strategies finite, but that is merely an approximation technique. Sometimes it may even be enlightening to approximate a subdivided interval by a continuous one. The radio frequency spectrum, for example, contains only finitely many frequencies as far as modern digital receivers are concerned, but there are so many frequencies that for some purposes one might as well think of the spectrum as being continuous. In this chapter we consider games where the choice of strategy is not limited to a finite set.

We didn’t lose the game;

we just ran out of time.

Vince Lombardi

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    y i (v) and f i (u) are inverse functions.

  2. 2.

    The equation is transcendental, so, as the reader may have already guessed, the value for a was actually obtained by plugging in 0.2 for H. This is the advantage of writing textbooks instead of working real problems—you can make up the data to be convenient.

References

  • Blackett, D. (1954). Some Blotto games. Naval Research Logistics, 1(1), 55–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burger, E. (1963). Introduction to the Theory of Games. Prentice-Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Charnes, A. (1953). Constrained games and linear programming. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 39(7), 639–41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dresher, M., Karlin, S., Shapley, L. (1950). Polynomial games. In H. Kuhn, & A. Tucker (Eds.), Contributions to the theory of games I (Annals of Mathematics Studies, Vol. 24, pp. 161–180), Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dresher, M. (1961). Games of strategy theory and applications. Prentice-Hall, subsequently republished in 1980 as The Mathematics of Games of Strategy Theory and Applications, Dover.

    Google Scholar 

  • Karlin, S. (1959). Mathematical Methods and Theory in Games, Programming, and Economics (Vols. 1 and 2). Addison-Wesley.

    Google Scholar 

  • McKinsey, J. (1952). Introduction to the Theory of Games. McGraw Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morse, P., & Kimball, G. (1950). Methods of Operations Research. Joint publishers Technology Press of MIT and Wiley, Section 5.4.5.

    Google Scholar 

  • Newman, D. (1959). A model for 'real' poker. Operations Research, 7(5), 557–560.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, C. (1964). Some past applications of game theory to problems of the United States Air Force. In A. Mensch (Ed.), Proceedings of a conference under the aegis of the NATO Scientific Affairs Committee, Toulon, France 250–267, American Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

  • Washburn, A., & Ewing, L. (2011). Allocation of clearance assets in IED warfare. Naval Research Logistics, 58(3), 180–187.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • von Neumann, J. (1937). Über ein Ökonomisches Gleichungssystem und eine Verallgemeinerung des Brouwerschen Fixpunktsatzes. Ergebnisse eines Mathematischen Kolloquiums, 8, 73–83.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Washburn, A. (2014). Games with a Continuum of Strategies. In: Two-Person Zero-Sum Games. International Series in Operations Research & Management Science, vol 201. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9050-0_5

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics