PryanksterDave (Dave Price)
DSC_3317 - Bertrand's Box Paradox (Detail)
These were shot for the Macro Monday challenge of Paradoxical Problems.
Bertrand's box paradox is a classic paradox of elementary probability theory. It was first posed by Joseph Bertrand in his Calcul des probabilités, published in 1889. There are three boxes: a box containing two gold coins, a box with two silver coins, and a box with one of each. After choosing a box at random and withdrawing one coin at random that happens to be a gold coin, it may seem that the probability that the remaining coin is gold has a probability of 1⁄2; in fact, the probability is actually 2⁄3.
In describing this problem to my wife, who holds a PhD., we got into a rather heated argument because she insisted that it was 1/2...
DSC_3317 - Bertrand's Box Paradox (Detail)
These were shot for the Macro Monday challenge of Paradoxical Problems.
Bertrand's box paradox is a classic paradox of elementary probability theory. It was first posed by Joseph Bertrand in his Calcul des probabilités, published in 1889. There are three boxes: a box containing two gold coins, a box with two silver coins, and a box with one of each. After choosing a box at random and withdrawing one coin at random that happens to be a gold coin, it may seem that the probability that the remaining coin is gold has a probability of 1⁄2; in fact, the probability is actually 2⁄3.
In describing this problem to my wife, who holds a PhD., we got into a rather heated argument because she insisted that it was 1/2...