The Monty Hall problem is a puzzle in probability that is loosely based on the American game show Let's Make a Deal. The name comes from the show's host Monty Hall. In this puzzle a player is shown three closed doors; behind one is a car, and behind each of the other two is a goat. The player is allowed to open one door, and will win whatever is behind the door. However, after the player selects a door but before opening it, the game host opens another door revealing a goat. The host then offers the player an option to switch to the other closed door. Does switching improve the player's chance of winning the car? The answer is yes — switching results in a 2/3 chance of winning the car. The problem is also called the Monty Hall paradox, in the sense that the solution is counterintuitive, although the problem is not a logical self-contradiction.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1926: Fox Film Corporation bought the patents of the Movietone sound system for recording sound onto film. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_Film_Corporation)

1952: Farouk of Egypt abdicated after a coup d'état. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farouk_of_Egypt)

1962: Telstar relayed the first live transatlantic television signal. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telstar)

1967: The 12th Street Riot began in the predominantly African American inner city area of Detroit, Michigan. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12th_Street_Riot)

1983: Air Canada flight 143, the "Gimli Glider", crash-landed in Gimli, Manitoba without loss of life.

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

"The private detective of fiction is a fantastic creation who acts and speaks like a real man. He can be completely realistic in every sense but one, that one sense being that in life as we know it such a man would not be a private detective." -- Raymond Chandler (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Raymond_Chandler)