Re: Twenty Beautiful Women

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 6:19 PM 7/27/96, David Sternlight wrote:
>Here's another:
>
>Twenty beautiful women are to pass before you, one by one (or 20 handsome
>men). You see only one at a time. You cannot speak to them. After seeing
>any one, you must pick her or reject her. If you reject her, you cannot
>change your mind. If you pick her the exercise terminates.
>
>What is the optimal strategy for insuring you get the most beautiful woman
>possible under the circumstances?

Look at the first 1/e of them, or about the first 36.8% of them. In this
case, the first 7 of them. Then pick the first one after this group which
is better than any of the first group.

While there is some chance that one will get to #20 and find that none of
#8-20 were better than #1-7, this strategy is the best compromise between
"committing too early" and "waiting too long."

--Tim May

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