7. Three prisoners are informed by their jailer that two of them have been chosen at random to be released. Prisoner A asks the jailer to tell him privately which of his fellow prisoners will be set free, claiming that there would be no harm in divulging this information because he already knows that at least one of the two will go free. The jailer refuses to answer this question, pointing out that if A knew which of his fellow prisoners were to be set free, then his own probability of being released would decrease from 2/3 to 1/2 because he would then be one of the two prisoners who might be released. What do you think of the jailer's interpretation of probabilities?

College Algebra (MindTap Course List)
12th Edition
ISBN:9781305652231
Author:R. David Gustafson, Jeff Hughes
Publisher:R. David Gustafson, Jeff Hughes
Chapter8: Sequences, Series, And Probability
Section8.6: Permutations And Combinations
Problem 2SC: How many different signals can be sent, when three flags are used, if two of the 9 flags are...
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7. Three prisoners are informed by their jailer that two of them have been chosen at random to be
released. Prisoner A asks the jailer to tell him privately which of his fellow prisoners will be set free,
claiming that there would be no harm in divulging this information because he already knows that
at least one of the two will go free. The jailer refuses to answer this question, pointing out that if
A knew which of his fellow prisoners were to be set free, then his own probability of being released
would decrease from 2/3 to 1/2 because he would then be one of the two prisoners who might be
released. What do you think of the jailer's interpretation of probabilities?
Transcribed Image Text:7. Three prisoners are informed by their jailer that two of them have been chosen at random to be released. Prisoner A asks the jailer to tell him privately which of his fellow prisoners will be set free, claiming that there would be no harm in divulging this information because he already knows that at least one of the two will go free. The jailer refuses to answer this question, pointing out that if A knew which of his fellow prisoners were to be set free, then his own probability of being released would decrease from 2/3 to 1/2 because he would then be one of the two prisoners who might be released. What do you think of the jailer's interpretation of probabilities?
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