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Old 24th July 2006, 09:13 PM
Chuck Chuck is offline
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Join Date: Jan 1970
Location: Sydney
Posts: 3,145
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KennyVictor
OK I'll ask, why should we change doors?


The chance of winning the car is doubled when the player switches to another door rather sticking with the original choice. The reason for this is that to win the car by sticking with the original choice the player must choose the door with the car first, and the probability of initially choosing the car is 1/3. Whereas, to win the car by switching the player must originally choose a door with a goat first, and the probability of choosing a goat door first is two in three.

At the point the player is asked whether to switch there are three possible situations corresponding to the player's initial choice, each with equal probability (1/3):

The player originally picked the door hiding goat number 1. The game host has shown the other goat.
The player originally picked the door hiding goat number 2. The game host has shown the other goat.
The player originally picked the door hiding the car. The game host has shown either of the two goats.
If the player chooses to switch, the car is won in the first two cases. A player choosing to stay with the initial choice wins in only the third case. Since in two out of three equally likely cases switching wins, the odds of winning by switching are 2/3. In other words, a player who has a policy of always switching will win the car on average two times out of the three.


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