| Topic Name: |
Brainteaser |
| Message Name: |
The answer |
| Date Posted: |
09/24/2001 |
| In Reply To: |
Perhaps someone can help solve this question.
3 prisoners and a jailer. A bag with 3 black and 2 red hats. The prisoners are blind folded and each selects a hat and puts it on his head. The jailer will let them go if anyone of them can identify the color of the hat on his head and explain why he knew the color. In other words they just can't guess. They can see each others hats but not their own. The jailer asks the first prisoner if he knows and he says no. Then
he asks the second prisoner and he says no. The third prisoner is blind but when he is asked he correctly identifies the color and explains how he knew it. |
| Message: |
The answer is prisoner 3, who is wearing a black hat. He knows this because prisoners 1 and 2 can not answer.
Prisoner 1 can see 2 (wearing red) and 3 (wearing black). Thus prisoner 1 can not work out the colour of his own hat. Similarly prisoner 2 can see 1 (wearing red) and 3 (wearing black) and again cannot work out the colour of his own hat. Prisoners 1 and 2 must be wearing the red hats as neither is able to answer. As there are only two red hats, prisoner 3 can rightly state he is wearing a black hat.
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