Marilyn Vos Savant It became famous in the 80s for being one of the people with the highest qi in the world. At 10 years old, his intelligence was that of a 23 -year -old adult, and for a period he was recognized by the Guinness Book of Records such as The smartest person on the planet.
Despite this, Vos Savant has always claimed that measuring intelligence is complicated and that a person’s qi. In 1990, however, his fame reached a peak when he answered a question that would become One of the most discussed in the history of mathematics and logic. The question concerned the famous Monty Hall problema paradox that has to do with the probability.
Vos Savant’s answer
In the television program “Let’s make a deal“, Conducted by Monty Hall, a competitor had three doors to choose from. Behind a door there was a car, while behind the other two there were goats. After the competitor had chosen a door, the conductor opened one of the other two doors, always behind which there was a goat, and asked him if he wanted to change his choice. The question was: is it convenient to change the door?
Vos Savant’s response aroused many controversies. She replied that change door increases the probability of winning. Initially, the probability of choosing the car is only 33% (1 out of 3), but once one of the doors with the goat has been opened, the chances of winning if you change pass to 66%. The logic is based on the fact that the conductor knows where the car is located and, therefore, the probability of winning doubles if you change the initial choice.
“Yes, you should change your choice. The first door offers a probability of victory of 1/3 (33%), but the second offers a possibility of victory of 2/3 (66%)Vos Savant explained to make the situation even clearer, he made an example with millions of doors: if they were to choose between a million doors, it would be clear that the winning choice would be the one with the greatest probability, that is, the one that remains after the opening of the other doors.
Sexism
Despite the criticism received, Vos Savant continued to defend his answer, explaining that cognitive dissonance often makes it difficult to accept the logic of the problem. In many letters of dispute, however, there was also another component: the sexism.
Some readers could not believe that a woman could solve such a complex problemand this has fueled his determination even more to continue explaining the paradox. In the end, Vos Savant managed to convince a significant part of people and today the Monty Hall problem It is known not only in mathematics, but also in popular culture, often mentioned in books, films and articles.
