Yes it is, go to http://www.willamette.edu/cla/math/articles/marilyn.htm
for the full explaination

As the artice points out, If you had a million doors and you chose door 1
and the host opened all others except door 777,777 , would you swap?

I still like my explaination if you choose a goat and the other goat is eliniated
then swapping will get you the car, and your chances of choosing the goat...2/3


Neven MacEwan (B.E. E&E)
Ph. 09 621 0001 Mob. 0274 749062



Paul M - ProSouth wrote:

This is not correct - at least based on your explanation.



We have 1
car and 49 goats. I choose in the first place door A.  The game master
opens 48 other doors:

.00000000000000000000000000000000.0000000000000000

Where is the car? The proability for door A is still 0.02, but for door No
34 it is 0.98. Anybody who still thinks it is 50:50?



Please explain why, in this scenario, the probabilities for doors 1 and 34 are different?

Regards,

Paul Matthews
ProSouth Technology Solutions
Phone: +64 3 470 1321
DDI: +64 3 470 1324
0800 PROSOUTH (0800 776 768)
249 Cumberland Street, Dunedin, New Zealand
Visit us at www.prosouth.co.nz

----- Original Message ----- From: "Dieter K�hler" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "NZ Borland Developers Group - Delphi List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, August 05, 2004 4:55 PM
Subject: Re: [DUG] Welcome back problem





Here is a clearification of my previous argumentation.

What is important here the distinction between
a simple probability P(X), i.e. the probability for X,
a conditional probabilitiy P(X|Y), i.e. the probability for X, given Y.

We have one car (signified by 1) and two goats (signified by 0).  Each
permutation has the same probability.  The different permutations are:

100
010
001

Let us suppose I choose in the first place door A (the first column) and
get the information that behind door B is a goat:

.0.

which decides between 010 and 001 only, but contains no additional
information about 100.  As a result I have now more information about door
C than about door A.

The trick is that the probabilities are not independent (there is no 0.33
chance individually for each door):

100  --> P(A) = 0.33
010  --> P(B) = 0.33
001  --> P(C) = 0.33

is converted to

100  --> P(A) = 0.33
010  --> P(B) = 0.0
001  --> P(C|non P(B)) = 0.66

The condition does not effect P(A), because there was nothing to choose.

Or in other words: What remains constant is P(A) as well as the sum P(B) +
P(C), but we know now that P(B) is 0 (the only new information provided)


so


it follows that P(C) is 0.66.


For those who are still not convinced try this modified example. We have 1 car and 49 goats. I choose in the first place door A. The game master opens 48 other doors:

.00000000000000000000000000000000.0000000000000000

Where is the car? The proability for door A is still 0.02, but for door No
34 it is 0.98.  Anybody who still thinks it is 50:50?

Dieter


_______________________________________________ Delphi mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://ns3.123.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/delphi





_______________________________________________ Delphi mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://ns3.123.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/delphi




_______________________________________________
Delphi mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://ns3.123.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/delphi

Reply via email to