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Wed 10 Nov, 2004 04:16 pm
The king, to test a candidate for the position of wise man, offers him a chance to marry the young lady in the court with the largest dowry. The amounts of the dowries are written on slips of paper and mixed. A slip is drawn at random and the wise man must decide whether that is the largest dowry or not. If he decided it is, he gets the lady and her dowry if he is correct; otherwise he gets nothing. If he decides against the amount written on the first slip, he must choose or refuse the next slip, and so on until he chooses one or else the slips are exhausted. In all, 100 attractive young ladies participate, each with a different dowry. How should the wise man make his decision?
A wise man would never choose a wife this way.
He would politely refuse the King's offer, explaining this.
Pass the first and choose the first dowry larger than largest one seen in the first.
Dang, you are good DarkWizard. In terms of probability, here is the answer with the basic math:
Pass the first (Num of dowries)/e (where e is about 2.7), and choose the first dowry larger than largest one seen in the first (Num dowries)/e. The wise man's chances of winning are also about 1/e
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