You are shown three boxes, and told that one of them contains a prize. You are then asked to pick one box, and if that box is the one with the prize, you will win it. After picking a box, you are shown that one of the other two boxes is empty, and offered a chance to change your selection.

Should you do this? Would changing your choice to the other remaining box affect your odds of winning? Why or why not?

I like analogies, especially really abstract analogies. (example)

I just thought of a cool analogy for this one.

Let's just say I have a 30 mL solution of 1M Ag(NO3) in a beaker.  I pour 10 mL of it into a test tube.  The first beaker, with 20 mL is heated until 10 mL is left.  The concentration in the beaker doubles to 2M, since only water has evaporated off.  If I were to add hydrochloric acid to one of the solutions in order to precipitate AgCl, it would be most efficient to add it to the beaker, since the beaker has higher concentration.

Now the probability of winning analogizes to the concentration of Ag+ cations... sort of...

I should probably just get back to my chemistry homework.

Posted by Tristan on 2005-03-04 03:01:28