The Monty Hall Paradox!

The Monty Hall Paradox!
Number	108
Broadcast Date	April 7, 2010
Episode Length	12:56
Hosts	Brian Brushwood

Use some sneaky statistics to win free beers off of your friends.

Revision3 Summary

A few episodes back, we asked you to send us your favorite, most counter-intuitive mathematics scams, and this was FAR and away the most popular one! Not only is it a curious statistical paradox, but in this episode you'll learn some easy ways to use this principle to swindle your friends out of free beers.

Several years ago, Parade magazine published the paradox as so:

Suppose you're on a game show, and you're given the choice of three doors: Behind one door is a car; behind the others, goats. You pick a door, say No. 1, and the host, who knows what's behind the doors, opens another door, say No. 3, which has a goat. He then says to you, "Do you want to pick door No. 2?" Is it to your advantage to switch your choice?

In this episode, Brian explains how and why most people make the wrong choice. If you want to see more mathematical proofs on this one, make sure to check out the wikipedia article here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem

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Fun Facts

• There are actually 13 arrowheads on a US $1 bill, not 12 as Brian says. This means there are a total of 15 heads on a US $1 bill.
• Some people claim there is a spider hidden on a dollar bill, but this is not true and it is just an unintentional side effect of the bill's design. Spider heads do not count.

Links

• Show Notes on Revision3

Preceded by: "Science prank! Will it sink or float?"

The Monty Hall Paradox!

Followed by: "LOCK PICKING, Part 1: The Bump Key"