quinta-feira, 26 de julho de 2012

The Monty Hall Problem The Remarkable Story of Math's Most Contentious Brain Tease


Jason Rosenhouse

Oxford University Press | 2009 | 208 páginas | PDF | 1,8 Mb

Mathematicians call it the Monty Hall Problem, and it is one of the most interesting mathematical brain teasers of recent times. Imagine that you face three doors, behind one of which is a prize. You choose one but do not open it. The host--call him Monty Hall--opens a different door, always choosing one he knows to be empty. Left with two doors, will you do better by sticking with your first choice, or by switching to the other remaining door? In this light-hearted yet ultimately serious book, Jason Rosenhouse explores the history of this fascinating puzzle. Using a minimum of mathematics (and none at all for much of the book), he shows how the problem has fascinated philosophers, psychologists, and many others, and examines the many variations that have appeared over the years. As Rosenhouse demonstrates, the Monty Hall Problem illuminates fundamental mathematical issues and has abiding philosophical implications. Perhaps most important, he writes, the problem opens a window on our cognitive difficulties in reasoning about uncertainty

Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
1: Ancestral Monty
2: Classical Monty
3: Bayesian Monty
4: Progressive Monty
5: Miscellaneous Monty
6: Cognitive Monty
7: Philosophical Monty
8: Final Monty
Appendix: A Gallery of Variations
Bibliography
Index

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