Talk:Two envelopes problem

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This is the talk page for discussing editorial changes to the two envelopes problem article. Please place discussions concerning solutions to the two envelopes problem itself on the Arguments page. Questions or statements of this kind here will be moved to that page without notice. A list of publications on the two envelopes problem can be found at the sources page

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An extensive literature list is available at Talk:Two envelopes problem/Literature Paradoctor (talk) 04:10, 8 October 2020 (UTC)Reply

If the amount of money is odd, it's better to switch. Since it can't be the X2 enveloppe. If it's even, switching is slightly riskier since maybe one of the envelopes is odd amount of money and you want to avoid it... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.48.133.1 (talk) 11:00, 6 November 2017 (UTC)Reply

Nice comment. However, as far as we know, there are just slips of paper in the envelopes with the amounts of money written on them. The envelopes need not contain US bank notes. Richard Gill (talk) 07:48, 21 July 2020 (UTC)Reply

My manuscript on TEP is now posted on arXiv (will appear on Tuesday) and submitted to a journal. Here is a sneak preview. https://www.math.leidenuniv.nl/~gill/tep.pdf Richard Gill (talk) 10:08, 7 March 2020 (UTC)Reply

Nice paper, but you might consider removing your reference to Talk:Two_envelopes_problem/Literature as this turned out to be an illegal talk page and will consequently soon be deleted. iNic (talk) 12:18, 7 July 2020 (UTC)Reply

That doesn't worry me. Richard Gill (talk) 14:36, 14 July 2020 (UTC)Reply

Ok that's good but I'm quite sure it will be deleted from Wikipedia. iNic (talk) 11:43, 15 July 2020 (UTC)Reply

A correspondent tells me that the following paper is not referenced and seems to them to be the definitive solution: The Two-Envelope Paradox Resolved. Author(s): Timothy J. McGrew, David Shier and Harry S. Silverstein. Source: Analysis , Jan., 1997, Vol. 57, No. 1 (Jan., 1997), pp. 28-33 Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of The Analysis Committee. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.com/stable/3328431 Richard Gill (talk) 07:50, 21 July 2020 (UTC)Reply

There are indeed many solutions and ideas not mentioned in the article. Why? Well there are simply too many of them and many are quite technical and thus not easily explained in an encyclopaedic article. Wikipedia can never be a replacement for the literature itself. An obvious fact that many people need to be reminded of over and over. This paper was, however, referenced indirectly until just recently in Talk:Two_envelopes_problem/Literature. It is the first entry for 1997. But this list is now so kindly removed as a reference by Rolf H Nelson so yes, now this paper is not mentioned at all at Wikipedia. iNic (talk) 11:10, 21 July 2020 (UTC)Reply

I found an interesting list of inconsistencies of the article here iNic (talk) 02:00, 25 November 2020 (UTC)Reply

Latest version of that article is dated 2018-01-02. A quick glance lets me doubt its value even when it was current. Paradoctor (talk) 02:28, 25 November 2020 (UTC)Reply

Although "the person stands to gain twice as much money if they switch, while the only risk is halving what they currently have", what this omits to mention is that they stand to double only the SMALL amount, but risk losing half the LARGE amount, so in fact the gains and losses even out, and the "paradox" evaporates. I think it would be useful to mention this up front, for the benefit of readers who maybe can't cope with the more mathematical explanations. 2A00:23C8:7B0C:9A01:87F:AA06:BD33:A284 (talk) 13:30, 15 April 2024 (UTC)Reply

maybe put something about the monty hall problem in there? it's very similar. 174.176.97.132 (talk) 20:52, 22 August 2025 (UTC)Reply