Monday, November 15, 2010

marriage problem

 Suppose you decide to marry, and to select your life partner you will interview at most 100 candidate spouses. The interviews are arranged in random order, and you have no information about candidates you haven’t yet spoken to. After each interview you must either marry that person or forever lose the chance to do so. If you have not married after interviewing candidate 99, you must marry candidate 100. Find a strategy to maximize the probability of choosing  the best spouse. For example, a simple strategy of marrying the first candidate will ensure best spouse with  probability 1/100.