Speakur

Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

two envelopes problem

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.33 in modern English

Syllables
two en-velopes prob-lem
IPA
33
Scrabble Score
19
Letters
3
Syllables
12
Unique Chars

Meaning

name

A puzzle of this kind: "You are given two indistinguishable envelopes, each containing money; one contains twice as much as the other. You may pick one envelope and keep the money it contains. Having chosen an envelope at will, but before inspecting it, you are given the chance to switch envelopes. Should you switch?" Because you stand to gain twice as much money if you switch while risking only a loss of half of what you currently have, it is possible to argue (fallaciously) that it is beneficial to switch.

Inflected Forms

the the two envelopes problem (canonical)

Synonyms

exchange paradox envelope paradox

Questions

What does two envelopes problem mean?
A puzzle of this kind: "You are given two indistinguishable envelopes, each containing money; one contains twice as much as the other. You may pick one envelope and keep the money it contains. Having chosen an envelope at will, but before inspecting it, you are given the chance to switch envelopes. Should you switch?" Because you stand to gain twice as much money if you switch while risking only a loss of half of what you currently have, it is possible to argue (fallaciously) that it is beneficial to switch.

How to pronounce two envelopes problem

  1. Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “two envelopes problem”.
  2. Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling () so you know which sounds to aim for.
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