20 Aug '08 22:23>
Originally posted by eldragonflyIn the case where the 2nd door opened was random from amongst the two left, I have never said other than the odds were equal switching or staying.
i'm completely surprised you actually understand this geep, congratulations. i made this exact point on the cards in the hat thread, it's good to see that you have finally come to your senses. ðŸ˜
It is when the door selected was intentionally selected to be empty/losing by someone who knew what each door held that the answer changes, and that is reflected in my answer as well. As I recall, in the thread where this problem was propounded before was explicitly defined with the circumstances of the Monty Hall problem, wherein the host knows the door layout, and intentionally chooses a losing door.
In this case, the problem was posed without any statement on the questions posed above, and thus an answer given for any set of reasonable assumptions, including those of the traditional Monty Hall set-up the post clearly refers to.
Two other sets of circumstances are that the door IS chosen randomly, and that the host decides whether to offer a chance to switch based on which door you pick.