Mathematician’s Lecture: "How to Choose the Best Offer and Not End Up in a Monastery"

Mathematician’s Lecture: "How to Choose the Best Offer and Not End Up in a Monastery"

The problem:
In a kingdom, a princess has a thousand suitors. One by one they come to meet her, and right after, she must decide whether to accept a marriage proposal or reject the suitor forever. If in the end the princess does not choose the best suitor, she will go to a monastery out of sorrow...

It turns out there is a strategy that gives the princess about a 37% chance of success. This is surprising because the bride has no information except the number of suitors. In the lecture, we will rediscover this strategy together and prove that it is optimal.

Besides being the foundation of a whole branch of probability and game theory, this problem is not just abstract — in real life, we often have to make quick decisions: accept the best offer, find the cheapest gas station on the way, or decide on future plans.

This lecture is for those looking for new ways to solve everyday problems!