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Ghoulish Delight 11-02-2012 02:16 PM
Logic Puzzle
 
Saw this on BoingBoing.



Quote:
Shown above are four men buried up to their necks in the ground. They cannot move, so they can only look forward. Between A and B is a brick wall which cannot be seen through.

They all know that between them they are wearing four hats--two black and two white--but they do not know what color they are wearing. Each of them know where the other three men are buried.

In order to avoid being shot, one of them must call out to the executioner the color 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 one minute, one of them calls out.

Question: Which one of them calls out? Why is he 100% certain of the color 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; A & B can only see their respective sides of the wall, C can see B, and D can see B & C.
Answer (at least I think it is - the answer page won't load, but I'm 99.9% sure my logic is correct)

Spoiler:
'C' shouts the correct answer. C knows that if D isn't saying anything, that B and C must be wearing different color hats (If they were wearing the same color, D would know he's wearing the other color). So since C can see that B is wearing a white hat, then he knows he must be wearing a black one.

Strangler Lewis 11-02-2012 03:35 PM
Great minds think alike.

Cadaverous Pallor 11-02-2012 08:52 PM
I just learned that if I were the person GD proves should know their own hat, then we would all be dead.

€uroMeinke 11-02-2012 09:25 PM
Thank goodness this kind of stuff only happens on Japanese game shows

Alex 11-02-2012 10:37 PM
And then they all died anyway because you can't breath very well when buried up to your neck.

I got it pretty quick but may have been tainted by Car Talk doing a simar problem a couple years ago.


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