Futility Closet

"The Monty Hall Problem": Solution

Posted in Puzzles by Greg Ross on May 4th, 2006

Solution to The Monty Hall Problem, from Wednesday:

You should switch to Door #2.

At the start, each door had a one-third chance of hiding the car. You chose Door #1, accepting a two-thirds chance that the car was really behind Door #2 or Door #3.

In revealing the goat behind Door #3, Monty has helped you by removing that door from contention. Therefore the two-thirds chance now rests entirely with Door #2.

This is counterintuitive, but it's true. If you picture the universe of possibilities, you'll see that in two-thirds of the cases you initially pick a goat, and Monty shows you where the car is by revealing the other goat. Only in one-third of the cases will you pick the car correctly on the first move, when switching is a bad idea.