Re: ISI INTERVIEW PREP

Posted by deepak on Jul 03, 2012; 10:07am
URL: http://discussion-forum.276.s1.nabble.com/ISI-INTERVIEW-PREP-tp7578819p7578991.html

Ok let me try restating the problem so that it conforms to an already known paradox with a resolution, called the 2 envelope problem.

The 2 envelope problem is as follows : 2 envelopes contain a certain amount of money each, one higher than the other. A person picks up an envelope at random and sees how much money it has. He can either choose to take this and walk away, or leave this envelope, take the other one (without inspecting it's content) and begone with it.

Now let me try to reduce our current problem to the 2 envelope problem :
Since 2 people each draw a number, one of them must have the higher number. Also, if I am person 1, the number I choose can be taken to represent the amount of money in the open envelope. The number my opponent chose will be the amount of money in the other closed envelope. One of these must be higher than the other and thus it reduces to the 2 envelope problem.

Now to see why they won't swap, do jog on to wikipedia and read this article :) -
Two Envelope problem
Definitely worth a read!