Three Curtains

You are a contestant on a game show. There are three curtains. Behind one of the curtains is a new car. You are asked to choose one of the curtains. Lets say that you choose curtain #1. The host of the show - who knows where the car is so as not to end the game prematurely - opens curtain #3 and of course there is no car behind it. The host now gives you a choice. You can stay with curtain #1 or you can change your choice to curtain #2. The question now is: would it be to your advantage to stay with curtain #1, or would it be to your advantage to change to curtain #2 or would there be no advantage either way?

Anyone disagree with kjsimons?

I don't know why Monty Hall is being brought into the conversation. The OP is nothing like the Monty Hall game. That game uses doors, whereas the OP game uses curtains. Also, the Monty Hall game has goats or some other undesirable "prize" behind two of the doors, whereas the OP game has nothing behind two of the curtains. The OP game is a one time occurance. It says that the host knows where the car is located so as not to end the game prematurely. From that it should be obvious that he will not open that curtain and so will not be choosing at random. Edited by rstrats, : No reason given.Edited by rstrats, : No reason given.

PaulK,re: "If this is a one-time occurrence then we do need to know if the host is required to offer the choice to switch..."Required or not is irrelevant to the OP. In this specific game, the OP says that the host does offer the chance to switch. The question is in regard to this specific game and not to any future ones.

What would you do if after your initial pick of curtain #1, and before any curtain was opened, the host told you that you could stay with #1 or switch to BOTH #2 and #3?

PaulK,re: "That's just another variation that makes no difference."Why do you think that having 2 curtains to look behind isn't better than having only 1?

PaulK,re: "... offering the chance to choose the other two is no different from revealing one of the other two as losing and offering the chance to switch to the remaining one. So it doesn't change the analysis at all."And the analysis says that it is better to have 2 curtains to look behind than to having only 1.

PurpleYouko wins a cigar.

Minnemosseus,re: "... suppose a different mother has two kids and one of them is a boy. What are the chances that the other one is a boy?"Are you sure that you have stated that correctly?