How Do I Use This Activity?

This activity allows the user to simulate the Monty Hall Game with up to 100 doors in which the user chooses a door, and then all but one door is opened to reveal a stinking pig. The player must then decide to stick with the original choice or change.

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Controls and Output

There are three sections to this activity: A Single Run panel, a Multiple Run panel, and a Cumulative Statistics Panel.

The Single Run panel allows you to play a single game of Monty Hall.

• You can change the number of doors by adjusting the scrollbar:
  
  

• Below the scrollbar are the actual doors. To play, click on one of the doors. A hand will appear on the door you selected, and at least one door will open to reveal the "runner-up" prize:
  
  

  You then either click on the door you originally selected, indicating that you want to stay with your original choice, or click on the remaining, unopened door. If you're lucky, the door will open to reveal the huge cash prize:
  
  

  

• After you have played a round, you can reset the doors by clicking on the Reset Doors button:
  
  

• Finally, you can choose whether or not the results of your individual runs should be added to the cumulative statistics panel, discussed below:
  
  

The Multiple Run panel allows you to simulate playing Monty Hall with up to 10,000 doors with 10,000 runs.

• You can change the number of doors and the number of trials by entering the correct values into the textfields:
  
  

• You can also specify your choice policy - whether you switch to the other unopened door after the remaining doors were opened, or if you stay with your original choice:
  
  

• When you have chosen the parameters for your experiment, you can click the Run Experiment button. The results of your experiment will also be displayed below the button:
  
  

The Cumulative Statistics panel is used to show the overall results of your experiments with Monty Hall through both a table and a bar chart.

• The table in the cumulative statistics panel shows the overall results of your experiments:
  
  

• Below the table is a row of charts that show the relation between wins and losses for the switching and staying policies:
  
  

• You can also click on the individual charts to pull up a larger, more complete bar chart: