Newsgroups: sci.math,sci.answers,news.answers Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!spool.mu.edu!torn!watserv3.uwaterloo.ca!undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca!neumann.uwaterloo.ca!alopez-o From: alopez-o@neumann.uwaterloo.ca (Alex Lopez-Ortiz) Subject: sci.math FAQ: Monty Hall problem Summary: Part 23 of many, New version, Originator: alopez-o@neumann.uwaterloo.ca Message-ID: Sender: news@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (news spool owner) Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu Date: Fri, 17 Nov 1995 17:15:39 GMT Expires: Fri, 8 Dec 1995 09:55:55 GMT Reply-To: alopez-o@neumann.uwaterloo.ca Nntp-Posting-Host: neumann.uwaterloo.ca Organization: University of Waterloo Followup-To: sci.math Lines: 57 Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu sci.math:124397 sci.answers:3431 news.answers:57832 Archive-Name: sci-math-faq/montyhall Last-modified: December 8, 1994 Version: 6.2 The Monty Hall problem This problem has rapidly become part of the mathematical folklore. The American Mathematical Monthly, in its issue of January 1992, explains this problem carefully. The following are excerpted from that article. Problem: A TV host shows you three numbered doors (all three equally likely), one hiding a car and the other two hiding goats. You get to pick a door, winning whatever is behind it. Regardless of the door you choose, the host, who knows where the car is, then opens one of the other two doors to reveal a goat, and invites you to switch your choice if you so wish. Does switching increases your chances of winning the car? If the host always opens one of the two other doors, you should switch. Notice that 1/3 of the time you choose the right door (i.e. the one with the car) and switching is wrong, while 2/3 of the time you choose the wrong door and switching gets you the car. Thus the expected return of switching is 2/3 which improves over your original expected gain of 1/3 . Even if the hosts switches only part of the time, it pays to switch. Only in the case where we assume a malicious host (i.e. a host who entices you to switch based in the knowledge that you have the right door) would it pay not to switch. References L. Gillman The Car and the Goats American Mathematical Monthly, January 1992, pp. 3-7. _________________________________________________________________ alopez-o@barrow.uwaterloo.ca Tue Apr 04 17:26:57 EDT 1995