Showing posts with label show. Show all posts
Monday, April 13, 2015
TV Show
brain
,
brain teasers
,
logic
,
logical games
,
logical puzzle
,
play puzzles online
,
puzzle
,
puzzle game
,
show
,
TV
No comments
:
The contestant picked the first door as his guess. At that point, the host walked to the third door and opened it. The door led to no prize, which is something the host knew perfectly well. He then gave the chance to the contestant to switch and pick the second door, if he so wished, or to stick to his first choice and stay with the first door.
Did the contestant have a greater chance of winning the car, by sticking with the 1st door, or by switching to the 2nd door? Or were the chances equal?
Notes:
The contestant knew three things: first, that the host doesn't want him to win; second, that the host was going to open one of the doors; and third, that the host would never open the door picked by the contestant himself... regardless of where the prize really is.
TV Show Puzzle Solution
This puzzle isn't particularly new, but it became very well known in 1990, thanks to the person that allegedly had "the highest IQ ever recorded" -- 228, according to The Guinness Book of WorldRecords. Miss Marilyn vos Savant (yes, it was a female) wrote a solution to this puzzle on her weekly column, published in a popular magazine. This solution led to waves of mathematicians, statisticians, and professors to very heated discussions about the validity of it.The contestant, according to vos Savant, had a greater chance of winning the car by switching his pick to the 2nd door.
She claimed that by sticking to the first choice, the chances of winning were 1 out of 3, while the chances doubled to 2 out of 3 by switching choices. To convince her readers, she invited her readers to imagine 1 million doors instead of just 3. "You pick door number 1," she wrote, "and the host, who knows what's behind every door, and doesn't want you to win, opens all of the other doors, bar number 777,777. You wouldn't think twice about switching doors, right?"
Most of her readership didn't find it as obvious as she thought it was... She started receiving a lot of mail, much of it from mathematicians, who didn't agree at all. They argued that the chances were absolutely equal, whether or not the contestant switched choice.
The week after, she attempted to convince her readers of her reasoning, by creating a table where all 6 possible outcomes were considered:
| Door 1 | Door 2 | Door 3 | Outcome (sticking to door 1) |
| Car | Nothing | Nothing | Victory |
| Nothing | Car | Nothing | Loss |
| Nothing | Nothing | Car | Loss |
| Door 1 | Door 2 | Door 3 | Outcome (switching to other door) |
| Car | Nothing | Nothing | Loss |
| Nothing | Car | Nothing | Victory |
| Nothing | Nothing | Car | Victory |
The table, she explained, shows that "by switching choices you win 2 out of 3 times; on the other hand, by sticking to the first choice, you win only once out of of 3 times".
However, this wasn't enough to silence her critics. Actually, it was getting worse.
"When reality seems to cause such a conflict with good sense," wrote vos Savant, "people are left shaken." This time, she tried a different route. Let's imagine that, after the host shows that there's nothing behind one of the doors, the set becomes the landing pad for a UFO. Out of it comes a little green lady. Without her knowing which door was picked first by the contestant, she is asked to pick one of the remaining closed doors. The chances for her to find the car are 50%. "That's because she doesn't have the advantage enjoyed by the contestant, ie the host's help. If the prize is behind door 2, he will open door 3; if it is behind door 3, he will open door 2. Therefore, if you switch choice, you will win if the prize is behind door 2 or 3. YOU WIN IN EITHER CASES! If you DON'T switch, you'll win only if the car is behind door 1".
Apparently, she was absolutely right, because the mathematicians reluctantly admitted their mistake.
Sunday, November 9, 2014
The Greatest Show On Earth
brain
,
brain teasing games
,
earth
,
logic
,
logical puzzles
,
puzzle
,
puzzle games
,
puzzle games online
,
riddle online
,
show
No comments
:
"This is terrible," the customs officer shouted. "It's impossible to
count all these people and animals that keep moving around constantly. I
can't count the same number twice! There are zebras, lions, giraffes,
horses, elephants, rhinos, tigers, cheetas, flamingos, storks, doves and
hummingbirds! I can't keep them under control, I just can't!"
"Count the heads, officer," the circus owner advised. "Every animal has got a head and, as the documentation shows, I can count 112 of them."
"Count the legs, officer, that's the way," the clown said. "There are 310 legs; if you subtract the number of heads from the number of legs, you'll be able to tell how many bipeds and how many four-legged animals there are."
"Wait a second, I've just counted the legs just now, and there's 297 of them," the cook said.
"This is driving me mad," the officer muttered. "One of them tells me there are 112 heads, another one talks about 310 legs, and that mentally-disturbed cook tells me that the number of legs is only 297. How many animals, including humans, are there?
To be more precise, how many bipeds and how many four-legged animals are there? And is the cook completely mad?
"Count the heads, officer," the circus owner advised. "Every animal has got a head and, as the documentation shows, I can count 112 of them."
"Count the legs, officer, that's the way," the clown said. "There are 310 legs; if you subtract the number of heads from the number of legs, you'll be able to tell how many bipeds and how many four-legged animals there are."
"Wait a second, I've just counted the legs just now, and there's 297 of them," the cook said.
"This is driving me mad," the officer muttered. "One of them tells me there are 112 heads, another one talks about 310 legs, and that mentally-disturbed cook tells me that the number of legs is only 297. How many animals, including humans, are there?
To be more precise, how many bipeds and how many four-legged animals are there? And is the cook completely mad?
The Greatest Show On Earth Puzzle Solution
There are 69 bipeds and 43 four-legged animals. If all animals were four-legged, the officer would have counted 448 legs, not 310. Obviously 138 legs are missing, hence 69 subjects are bipeds.It's worth pointing out that, within the bipeds, there are 13 stilt birds, which include flamingos and storks. The cook must have counted them as they were standing on one leg only, so whilst he is not crazy, he almost drove the customs officer mad.
Subscribe to:
Posts
(
Atom
)
