Sunday 6 January 2013

'STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN'- A Mathematics riddle!

STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN is our adaption of a famous mathematics problem.

Suppose there is a man who just passed away (died!), and accidentally he has been sent to ‘hell’. There, he meets a sadistic devil who gives him a chance of escaping hell in order to go to ‘heaven’.

 But there is a catch, the person must choose a specific door which holds the ‘STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN’.

He presents the problem to the man:
There are 3 doors, two contain ultimate demolition and the last door holds the STAIRWAY. You must choose the door containing the stairway in order to escape.

The man eventually chooses a door, unaware of what it holds.
The devil who knows what is behind each door opens a door that doesn’t hold the STAIRWAY.

After revealing this door, he offers the man a choice: He can either stay on the door he has chosen or switch to the door that is now left.
So, considering the fact that the devil doesn’t want the man to go to heaven, the question arises; SHOULD THE MAN MAKE THE SWITCH OR STAY ON THE DOOR THAT HE HAS CHOSEN??

KINDLY TYPE IN YOUR ANSWERS OR VIEWS IN THE COMMENT BOX BELOW (please give mathematical explanation to you answers), the solution will be revealed next week, so stay tuned!!!


8 comments:

  1. yes he should switch bcoz the probability of his winning increases to 66%. monty hall problem justified

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    1. Nice thinking, we will post the solution next week, so lets wait till then and see if anyone else is also able to think up a solution...

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  2. This is just the Monty hall problem recreated!
    He should obviously switch!
    The probability of him choosing the right door is unaffected by devil's gesture of showing the door.
    The probability of stairway being behind a door he has not chosen remains the same ie. 66%. So he should switch

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  3. Well it depends... Did the devil tell him ahead of time that he would open a door. Or did the devil, knowing he was a mathematician and bound to know the Monty Hall problem only give him the choice to swap because he knew that he had chosen correctly?

    My thinking is that the devil is very conniving and the man shouldn't swap because swapping will be demolition.

    But wait, maybe the devil knew that the man would come to the logical conclusion that the devil was tricking him, the devil would have counted on it, so he can clearly not choose to keep the same door.

    ...

    Just wait til I get going!

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  4. Well, it is assumed that both, the devil and the man involved are non-mathematicians and the man doesnt know that he is going to be offered a choice, so your second proposition seems more valid for this situation...

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  5. Devil has to release your soul when you truly choose others over yourself. Building a stairway to heaven and earth

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  6. Devil has to release your soul when you truly choose others over yourself. Building a stairway to heaven and earth

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  7. Devil has to release your soul when you truly choose others over yourself

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