Twenty Beautiful Women

[David Sternlight]

At 10:29 AM -0700 7/28/96, Timothy C. May wrote:
>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."

Correct.

David