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Wed 27 Jul, 2005 12:42 am
Okay, guys, here comes a real doozy - took me quite a while to figure out.
A college is giving away a scholarship to one of three extremely intelligent individuals, the recipient of which will be determined by a challenge that all three must undertake. They are blindfolded and led into a room in which there are hundreds of hats, all colored either black or white. They all select a hat randomly off the ground and put it on. They are then led to another room with three chairs, arranged in a large triangle, enabling them to see each other once the blindfolds are removed. They cannot see their own hat. If they see a black hat at all, they are to tap their feet. The idea is, the first person to figure out what color his hat is wins the scholarship.
The three people sit down and their blindfolds are removed, and immediately all three people start tapping their feet. They all sit and consider what this means, and after several very tense moments, one of them stands up and proclaims, 'My hat must be black!'
How did he know?
Bill, Joe and Ted are all tapping their feet because tthey all picked a black hat. The one who says mine is black reasons that IF his hat were white the other two would already have answered the question because each of them would be able to see one white and one black hat, so they wouldn't have a problem.
The fact that they haven't twigged yet tells Mr sharp pants that ALL their hats must be black.
Correct!
Have you heard this one before?
The biggest clue, and the most subtle one, is the fact that some time passes before one of them comes to an answer, thereby demonstrating that all of them have come to a point in their logic at which they are uncertain about something - such as, for example, if all their hats are black.
Bravo, Don!
riddle solved
First of all(case the first
), they couldnt all have white hats, cause if they had, NONE would tap their feet.Second case-the case in which one has a black hat and two have white ones.In this case one of them(the one with the black hat on) would NOT tap his feet(which contradicts the very premises of the problem).Ok..next on, there is the case of two blacks and one white which is the hardest one yet, but is the key to the solution.one of the students wearing a black(he sees black and white) hat would ask himself wether he's wearing black or white.If he would be wearing white then -> case the second(out of bounds).If that were the case he would know he was wearing black.However, no student answers("after several very tense moments"), which excludes this solution(2B 1W) leaving only one solution, the one where THEY ALL HAVE BLACK HATS.
I love this riddle... Took me time also but is actually quite simple
haha! I will torture with that riddle my friends now
thank you.
Quite welcome.
Took me forever.
He saw the 2 others with white hats, and tapping feet, therefore they must see a black hat - his.
The problem with that solution, Eskimo, is that it took him 'several tense moments.' A bright guy could have figured that out if he had seen two white hats instantly, but since it took time that implies that there was an element of uncertainty in the making of his decision; therefore he must have come to a point in his logic where there was no certainty, i.e. he saw two black hats and two people tapping feet. That being the case, he concludes that they must all have black hats, since they all seem to be 'stuck.'
Black Hats
The guy who exclaims that his hat is black knows this because....
He sees both other guys tapping which means they both see at least one black hat, and more importantly, what he sees is at least one white hat, maybe two white hats. This means that they others are seeing a black hat and so it must be his.
sid pro quo.
Morgan2 wrote:The guy who exclaims that his hat is black knows this because....
He sees both other guys tapping which means they both see at least one black hat, and more importantly, what he sees is at least one white hat, maybe two white hats. This means that they others are seeing a black hat and so it must be his.
sid pro quo.
There clearly can't be two white hats - all three are tapping their feet. If there was one white hat, then
two students would see one black and one white hat tapping. As you explain, both of these students (being bright) would immediately know their hat was black. But since a fair amount of time passes before anyone answers, this cannot be the case. All three hats must be black.
Re: Black Hats
Morgan2 wrote:The guy who exclaims that his hat is black knows this because....
He sees both other guys tapping which means they both see at least one black hat, and more importantly, what he sees is at least one white hat, maybe two white hats. This means that they others are seeing a black hat and so it must be his.
sid pro quo.
Oi! That's what i said lol. Maybe the guy was under stress, so he didn't think fast?
I recon that because the university used this riddle, they knew the answer. If they wanted one scholar then they wouldnt want the possibility that they might get a avarage brightness person(situation with only one black hat) or the possibility that two people would win at the same time(situation when there is only one white hat so i think that in the room where they picked up the hats blindfolded, there were actually ONLY black hats, no white hats.
Dark
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