Tuesday, July 08, 2008

21

When we watched the movie a couple of weeks back, I was the only one who came out of the movie still wondering about the game show problem that Kevin Spacey asks in the MIT classroom in the movie (Yes, I did feel stupid being the only one who didn't get it).
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?
I thought that the answer in the movie ("yes") was counter-intuitive & it kept bothering me for days (I do get obsessive about the silliest of things sometimes) so I wiki-ed it up. For all those movie-watchers like me who're mathematically-challenged, please look here. Wikipedia has explained it quite well...besides, I thought the pictures of goats & cars were cute (its bizzare that the car is smaller than the goats) :)

6 comments:

Parth said...

I think I had heard of this problem before, yet it was interesting to read that Wikipedia description of it. How was the movie btw? I haven't heard a good deal of good about it.

Radha said...

Parth,
I quite liked the movie. The story itself (given that its a true story) is incredible. But the movie doesn't really get into the heads of these math geniuses. It feels kind of superficial. Worth one watch nonetheless.

Unknown said...

Hahaha.. I saw this movie on the flight back last weekend.

It's about the probability by elimination something. Wish I could THINK like that.

A brilliant movie in my view. If you like this, you should watch Rounders (Edward Norton & Matt Damon).

Radha said...

J,
I haven't seen "Rounders" yet, but heard good things abt it. Will add it to my movie queue! I do find Edward Norton cute post-Hulk.

Meghna said...

Cldn't make head or tale of it so read wiki....LOL! for the pics and yes, wiki has done it well :)

diyadear said...

hey i saw the movie 2 days back and i was stranded on those lanes to.. nice explanation.. :)