[quote]orion wrote:
[quote]Schwarzfahrer wrote:
hey, the congrats are mine! (you know, the snappy joke about me obviously being german, while citing doug adams, whine whine?)[/quote]
I am afraid you are way to clever to gain a wide audience.
[/quote]
If only they’d understand teh science!
[quote]DoubleDuce wrote:
[quote]Brother Chris wrote:
[quote]Rico Suave wrote:
Riddle:
There are 4 prisoners and 1 guard. The prisoners are lined up in a straight line as shown (x’s and o’s are prisoners, Y is the guard, and | is a brick wall)
1 2 3 4
x o x | o
Y
---------->
The guard tells the 4 prisoners “I placed a hat on each one of your heads. There are 2 black hats, and 2 red hats. If one of you tell me which colour hat you are wearing, I will let you go free”
All prisoners are facing ONE way. They are not allowed to talk, communicate, touch their hats, stray from the line, turn around, signal to each other, look at their own hat, etc. They are only allowed to face the one way (in which the arrow shows). There is a brick wall in between 123 and 4. Noone can see through, over, around, or under the wall.
Here is how the guard placed the hats on the heads of the prisoners (R = red, B = black)
1 2 3 4
R B R | B
Y
----------->
Which, if any, prisoner will raise their hand and tell the guard what colour hat they are wearing? They only have one guess, and if they are wrong, they will be shot.[/quote]
Prisoner 2 would call out, because he would know that if his hat were the same color as 3’s hat, then 1 would have known that his own hat was the opposite color of 3 and 2’s hat and would have called out. Since 1 did not speak then 2 knows that his hat is the opposite color of 3’s[/quote]
Actually, if 2 gets to call out his hat is black, 3 will also be able to deduce that his is red.
Oh, and the whole thing requires the prisoners to know the exact set up.[/quote]
BrotherChris had it right. I guess 3 can also call it out but that is after prisoner 2 does. The riddle doesn’t actually continue on past solving the for the first prisoner.
To your second point, no it doesn’t. The only thing the prisoners must know is that there is 2 black and 2 red hats. The order does not matter. However, if the order was different, then the answer would probably not be prisoner 2 and the riddle would most likely not be a riddle to begin with.
[quote]DoubleDuce wrote:
[quote]Brother Chris wrote:
[quote]Rico Suave wrote:
Riddle:
There are 4 prisoners and 1 guard. The prisoners are lined up in a straight line as shown (x’s and o’s are prisoners, Y is the guard, and | is a brick wall)
1 2 3 4
x o x | o
Y
---------->
The guard tells the 4 prisoners “I placed a hat on each one of your heads. There are 2 black hats, and 2 red hats. If one of you tell me which colour hat you are wearing, I will let you go free”
All prisoners are facing ONE way. They are not allowed to talk, communicate, touch their hats, stray from the line, turn around, signal to each other, look at their own hat, etc. They are only allowed to face the one way (in which the arrow shows). There is a brick wall in between 123 and 4. Noone can see through, over, around, or under the wall.
Here is how the guard placed the hats on the heads of the prisoners (R = red, B = black)
1 2 3 4
R B R | B
Y
----------->
Which, if any, prisoner will raise their hand and tell the guard what colour hat they are wearing? They only have one guess, and if they are wrong, they will be shot.[/quote]
Prisoner 2 would call out, because he would know that if his hat were the same color as 3’s hat, then 1 would have known that his own hat was the opposite color of 3 and 2’s hat and would have called out. Since 1 did not speak then 2 knows that his hat is the opposite color of 3’s[/quote]
Actually, if 2 gets to call out his hat is black, 3 will also be able to deduce that his is red.
Oh, and the whole thing requires the prisoners to know the exact set up.[/quote]
Only the one gets to guess I believe. 3 would never be able to deduce anything because he does not even know what anyone’s hat is.
[quote]Rico Suave wrote:
Riddle:
There are 4 prisoners and 1 guard. The prisoners are lined up in a straight line as shown (x’s and o’s are prisoners, Y is the guard, and | is a brick wall)
1 2 3 4
x o x | o
Y
---------->
The guard tells the 4 prisoners “I placed a hat on each one of your heads. There are 2 black hats, and 2 red hats. If one of you tell me which colour hat you are wearing, I will let you go free”
All prisoners are facing ONE way. They are not allowed to talk, communicate, touch their hats, stray from the line, turn around, signal to each other, look at their own hat, etc. They are only allowed to face the one way (in which the arrow shows). There is a brick wall in between 123 and 4. Noone can see through, over, around, or under the wall.
Here is how the guard placed the hats on the heads of the prisoners (R = red, B = black)
1 2 3 4
R B R | B
Y
----------->
Which, if any, prisoner will raise their hand and tell the guard what colour hat they are wearing? They only have one guess, and if they are wrong, they will be shot.[/quote]
I guess you’re saying they can only look forward.
So, if Prisoner 1 sees two hats in front of him with the same colour, he will guess the opposite. Here, he will speak.
If Prisoner 1 sees two hats of opposite colour, he will have no idea which to guess and will shut up. Prisoner 2 will know from the silence that his hat is of different colour than the person in front of him. Here, he will speak.
[quote]chimera182 wrote:
EDIT: SPOILER if you don’t wanna know the answer
Ask the guard what the other one would tell you if you asked “which door is right” then do the opposite.[/quote]
No way bro. Ask the question like you said but both guards will point to the door that will send you to hell or w.e.
EDIT: Seems I misunderstood your explanation but we both arrived at the same place though.
[quote]Brother Chris wrote:
Prisoner 2 would call out, because he would know that if his hat were the same color as 3’s hat, then 1 would have known that his own hat was the opposite color of 3 and 2’s hat and would have called out. Since 1 did not speak then 2 knows that his hat is the opposite color of 3’s[/quote]
NO WAY! That was insane. I have to use this on someone now and put them through my misery.
Technically, if they were of similar height and weren’t able to move at all, prisoner 2 would be obstructing prisoner 1’s view of prisoner 3. Unless the guard put them in descending order according to height.
I found the German had the fish, but it took me like 40 minutes. I screwed it up on my paper and broke out the dry erase board, then I took a break and made a pot of tea.