Game show shenanigans: Monty Hall meets mathematical logic (Q509122): Difference between revisions

The authors consider two problems being modifications of the \textit{classical Monty Hall problem}. The first of them, called the `truth triad', has the following structure: A contestant is presented three doors labeled 1, 2, and 3. Further, the contestant is informed that behind one door is \$20,000, behind the other two doors is motor oil, and that all three doors are equally likely to contain the money. A door number is determined at random (but not told to the contestant) to house the cash. Monty (the host), who knows where the green is, randomly chooses a proposition \(\phi\) concerning the location of the cash (this will be made precise shortly). He then presents \(\phi\) to the contestant. The contestant, after a reasonable period of time to analyze \(\phi\) is presented with the truth value of \(\phi\) (true or false, relative to the randomly chosen door). She then chooses a door, after which Monty opens the chosen door and the contestant wins the prize which lies behind it. The second problem studied in the paper, called the `Full Monty', differs from the truth triad only by the assumption that now, there are no restrictions placed on how many doors have \$20,000 behind them, and all possibilities are equally likely. Both problems, the `truth triad' and the `Full Monty', have been described in an interesting way in the language of Boolean algebra, and the authors find for them the probability that the contestant playing his optimal strategy wins.