Those of you not familiar with the Monty Hall Problem, it goes a little something like this:

Let’s say you are on a game show and you are presented with 3 doors. Behind the first door is a car and behind the other 2 doors is a goat. Let’s say you pick door # 1 and the host (who knows what’s behind all the doors) opens up door #2 which has a goat. Then the host asks you, “Do you want to pick door # 3? Or stick with your original choice of door #1? Now the choice you have to make is, is it better to change your choice or stick with the original?

Think about this for a moment before you scroll down to read the answer. Most people assume that since one of the doors are eliminated from the equation (since the host shows it to you) and there are 2 doors left, that the odds of picking the correct door are 50/50. But that is actually not the case.

Now before I actually get into the explanation (which takes time to wrap your brain around) let me first say that it is actually in your best interest to switch as your probability of getting the car goes up from 33.33% to 66.66%…why?

I looked around for several easy to understand explanations and I think the one above does an excellent job of doing so.  Hope it makes sense.

What do you think of the Monty Hall Problem?

Thanks for reading

Follow me on twitter

Connect with me on linkedin

Connect with me on facebook

Comments