"The Monty Hall Problem"
Because of his work on Let's Make a Deal, Hall's name is used in a probability puzzle known as "The Monty Hall Problem," which examines the counter-intuitive effect of switching one's choice of doors, one of which hides a prize, if "Monty" reveals an unwanted item behind a door the player did not choose. Hall himself gave an explanation of the solution to that problem in an interview with The New York Times reporter John Tierney in 1991. In the article, Hall pointed out that because he had control over the way the game progressed, playing on the psychology of the contestant, the theoretical solution did not apply to the show's actual gameplay.
The puzzle was mentioned in an episode of the first season of the television drama NUMB3RS, in the 2008 movie 21, and in the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. A detailed explanation and rationale for the solution to this problem is presented in the book The World's 200 Hardest Brainteasers by Gary Gruber. In 2011, it was showcased on an episode of the show MythBusters.
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Famous quotes containing the words monty, hall and/or problem:
“Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.”
—Monty Python’s Flying Circus. first broadcast Sept. 22, 1970. Michael Palin, in Monty Python’s Flying Circus (BBC TV comedy series)
“When Western people train the mind, the focus is generally on the left hemisphere of the cortex, which is the portion of the brain that is concerned with words and numbers. We enhance the logical, bounded, linear functions of the mind. In the East, exercises of this sort are for the purpose of getting in tune with the unconscious—to get rid of boundaries, not to create them.”
—Edward T. Hall (b. 1914)
“The general public is easy. You don’t have to answer to anyone; and as long as you follow the rules of your profession, you needn’t worry about the consequences. But the problem with the powerful and rich is that when they are sick, they really want their doctors to cure them.”
—Molière [Jean Baptiste Poquelin] (1622–1673)