TV game show puzzle challenges probability assumptions
7 reported
A puzzle published in The Guardian imagines a TV game show where two contestants each flip a fair coin in separate booths, visible to the audience but not to each other. Each contestant must guess what the other flipped, and both must guess correctly to win a prize. The article states that the chance of each person guessing correctly is 50 percent, making the chance of both guessing correctly 25 percent. The puzzle asks readers to find a strategy that gives a better than 25 percent chance of winning. The puzzle was contributed by Henk Tijms, Emeritus Professor of Operations Research at VU Amsterdam. The article notes that the answer will be provided at 5pm UK time. The puzzle is part of a series that has been running on alternate Mondays since 2015.
What’s reported
The puzzle imagines a TV game show where two people flip a fair coin in separate booths.
Each contestant must guess what the other flipped, and both must guess correctly to win.
The chance of each person guessing correctly is 50 percent, so the chance of both guessing correctly is 25 percent.
The puzzle asks for a strategy that gives a better than 25 percent chance of winning.
Henk Tijms, Emeritus Professor of Operations Research at VU Amsterdam, contributed the puzzle.
The answer will be provided at 5pm UK time.
The puzzle series has been running on alternate Mondays since 2015.
Key figures
Henk Tijms, Emeritus Professor of Operations Research at VU Amsterdam
Sources: The Guardian
