The Monty Hall Solution

The answer is: It's better for the candidate to switch. If he switches, his chance of winning the sports car is 2/3 (67%), but if he sticks with his original choice, it is only 1/3 (33%).

At this point, large parts of my audience usually start a revolt. At least those who know a bit about statistics will say it's a clear case: After the moderator has opened one goat door, there are two doors left - one means victory, the other defeat. That's fifty-fifty, no doubt!

But that's wrong. A vague idea of an explanation is the following: In the beginning, the probability of finding the right door is 1/3. This probability "sticks" to the door the candidate selected at first, so when one of the other doors is removed from the game, the remainig probability is 2/3 in order to have all probabilities sum up to 1. (Statisticians don't like it if the sum is not 1. This means you've made a mistake.)

If that is not a sufficient explanation for you, there's still

With this ammunition, nobody should get into trouble any more if she has to defend the truth against the infidels...

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  Frederik Ramm, 2001-04-26