November 24, 2003
Awwwk
Okay, I hate these things too, but give it a try. And don't feel bad, it took me over 5 minutes to figure it out.
Shown above are 4 men buried up to their necks in the ground.
They can not move so can only look forward.
Between A and B is a brick wall which can not be seen through.
They know that between them are 4 hats, 2 x black and 2 x white, but they do not know which colour they are wearing.
In order to avoid being shot one of them must call out to the executioner the colour of their hat. If they get it wrong, everyone will be shot.
They are not allowed to talk to each other and have 10 minutes to fathom it out.
After 1 minute:
Q Which one of them calls out ?
Q. Why is he 100% certain of the colour of his hat ?
This is not a trick question.
There are no outside influences nor other ways of communicating. They cannot move and are buried in a straight line. So A & B can only see their respective sides of the brick wall, C can see B and D can see B & C.
Ok, lemme reason this out.
"A" has no clue cause he can't see the others and brick walls don't reflect. The same goes for "B".
Both have a 50% chance of getting it right.
"C" knows that there are 2 black hats and one white hat out there since "B" has a white hat. Calling "black" is the best option (67% chance of being right).
"D" can see one white hat and one black so its still a toss up (50%).
What did I miss?
Something ...
Posted by: Rodger Schultz on November 24, 2003 12:55 PMWell your post implies that "A" is the answer. I guess he's Superman and can see through brick walls.
Whenever I see "This is not a trick question." there a trick somewhere.
C yells Black! He knows that if his were white, D would immediately, seeing two white hats, yell black.
Posted by: Kingslasher on November 24, 2003 01:10 PMBINGO!
Posted by: Rodger Schultz on November 24, 2003 01:57 PMTrick! Like I said "C" had the best chance but if he'd called White they would've all been shot according to the rules. Then it would hardly matter what "D" said.
Maybe they saw each other before they were burried, then D saw two black and one white, and knows what the is wearing?
Posted by: mike on November 24, 2003 03:08 PMOh wait, I know, any of them can tilt their head fwd until their hat falls off, in front of them, then they yell out that color
Posted by: mike on November 25, 2003 02:33 PMA full day after the correct answer is posted and identified, people are still suggesting answers.
And that is why puzzles such as these would never work in real life. Were I in C's spot, I might reason that D would answer based on the information he sees, but with my luck, D would be Mike Leachman.
Posted by: Phillip Winn on December 1, 2003 11:40 AM