monty-hall-problems
Original: monty-hall-problems on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1 (father and son walking outside):
Father: Suppose you can pick door A, door B, or door C. Two doors hide a goat. One hides a prize.
Panel 2 (close on father):
Father: You pick one, then the host reveals that one of the OTHER doors hides a goat.
Father: Should you switch?
Panel 3:
Son: Switching won't improve your odds from being 50-50.
Panel 4 (father and son walking):
Father: WRONG. If you switch, you get a two in three chance to find the prize.
Panel 5:
Son: How?
Father: Math goblins.
Panel 6 (close on father):
Father: When a math problem has an obvious answer that is actually wrong, it's because they green goblins invaded the universe's fabric of logic and screwed around with it.
Panel 7:
Father: Did you know that 0.9999... exactly equals one?
Son: Nuh uh.
Father: Math goblins.
Panel 8:
Son: I think you're just making up fantasies to paper over your lack of math education.
Father: NO! DAMMIT! NOBODY BELIEVES ME!
Panel 9 (LATER — caption text: "I told him: 24 people in a room, two of them probably share a birthday"):
Father: NO! NOOO!
Votey:
A giant green goblin face fills the panel. A thought/speech bubble above its head contains the mathematical statement "i² ∈ ℝ" (i squared is an element of the real numbers).
Father: Suppose you can pick door A, door B, or door C. Two doors hide a goat. One hides a prize.
Panel 2 (close on father):
Father: You pick one, then the host reveals that one of the OTHER doors hides a goat.
Father: Should you switch?
Panel 3:
Son: Switching won't improve your odds from being 50-50.
Panel 4 (father and son walking):
Father: WRONG. If you switch, you get a two in three chance to find the prize.
Panel 5:
Son: How?
Father: Math goblins.
Panel 6 (close on father):
Father: When a math problem has an obvious answer that is actually wrong, it's because they green goblins invaded the universe's fabric of logic and screwed around with it.
Panel 7:
Father: Did you know that 0.9999... exactly equals one?
Son: Nuh uh.
Father: Math goblins.
Panel 8:
Son: I think you're just making up fantasies to paper over your lack of math education.
Father: NO! DAMMIT! NOBODY BELIEVES ME!
Panel 9 (LATER — caption text: "I told him: 24 people in a room, two of them probably share a birthday"):
Father: NO! NOOO!
Votey:
A giant green goblin face fills the panel. A thought/speech bubble above its head contains the mathematical statement "i² ∈ ℝ" (i squared is an element of the real numbers).
Alt text
A SMBC comic about the Monty Hall problem. A father walks outside with his young son and explains: you can pick door A, B, or C; two doors hide a goat and one hides a prize; after you pick, the host reveals a goat behind one of the other doors. He asks if you should switch. The son says switching won't improve the odds from 50-50. The father says WRONG, switching gives a two-in-three chance. When the son asks how, the father just says 'Math goblins.' He explains that whenever a math problem has an obvious answer that's actually wrong, it's because green goblins invaded the universe's fabric of logic and messed with it. He gives another example, that 0.9999... exactly equals one; the son says 'nuh uh' and the father again says 'Math goblins.' The son accuses him of making up fantasies to cover his lack of math education, and the father cries 'NO! DAMMIT! NOBODY BELIEVES ME!' In the final panel, a caption notes he told the son that in a room of 24 people, two probably share a birthday, and the father is wailing 'NO! NOOO!' Votey: a giant green goblin face fills the frame, with a thought bubble above it showing the math notation 'i² ∈ ℝ' (i squared is an element of the real numbers) — a false statement, implying the goblin itself is the source of counterintuitive math facts.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.