The Woman Who Holds the Highest IQ Record in History

The Monty Hall Problem: Marilyn vos Savant and the Mathematical Controversy

Back in September 1990, Marilyn vos Savant took on the Monty Hall problem in her column "Ask Marilyn." This puzzle, kind of like a brain teaser, went like this:

The Scenario:

• Three doors. One hides a car. Two hide goats.
• You pick a door.
• The host opens another door showing a goat.
• Then he asks: switch doors or stay?

The Question: Should you switch?

Marilyn said: "Yes, switch."

People went crazy. Like, really crazy. Over 10,000 letters flooded in. PhD holders argued she was wrong. Some got nasty:

"You completely messed up!" "You are that goat (fool)!" "Perhaps women view mathematical problems differently than men."

But was she wrong?

Nope. She nailed it.

Think about it: When you first choose, you have a 1/3 chance of picking the car. That means there's a 2/3 chance the car is behind one of the other doors. The host then shows you a goat, essentially pointing toward the remaining door if your first choice was wrong. Switch, and you win 2/3 of the time. Stay, and you're stuck with your original 1/3 odds.

It seems counterintuitive. People want to think it's 50-50 after a door opens. It's not.

MIT ran simulations proving her right. MythBusters tested it too. Same result. Many academic folks eventually admitted their mistake.

Why do we get this wrong? We reset our thinking when the host opens a door. We forget what came before. The simplicity trips us up, oddly enough.

Now about Marilyn herself. Quite something. IQ of 228. Einstein? Maybe 160-190. Hawking? Around 160. Musk claims 155. She's in the Guinness Book of Records, though they don't track IQs anymore.

By age 10, this kid had memorized entire books. Read all 24 volumes of Encyclopaedia Britannica cover to cover. Not entirely clear why she wasn't sent to special schools with that kind of brain.

Life wasn't all smooth sailing. Public school, not fancy academies. Dropped out of university to help with family business. Pretty normal stuff for someone extraordinary.

Then 1985 happened. "Ask Marilyn" column in Parade Magazine. Writing dreams realized. But that Monty Hall response? Game changer.

Her legacy? Showing how math beats gut feeling. Proving even genius gets questioned when challenging what people think they know.

Marilyn vos Savant. Brain power and backbone. Not bad for someone who made people rethink their understanding of probability while being told women "think differently" about math.