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Thu 26 Jan, 2006 01:40 pm
You are travelling in a deep, dark forest when, suddenly, on a dark and stormy night, you are captured by the kind-but-not-so-bright forest people. They keep looking at you and saying to each other, "It be a smart person!"
You are marched to their village and seated in the square. Before you are blindfolded, you notice two other lucky souls seated in chairs facing you. Then you are told that the forest people king is about to die. He previously sent messengers throughout the land seeking the 3 smartest people. You are one, and two others have also been found. He now gives you all a task to see which one is the wisest.
He tells you, "I have seated you in an equilateral triangle so that each of you faces the other two. While you are blindfolded I will paint a dot on each of your foreheads. Each dot will be red or green so that there can be any combination of red and green dots, for example, 1 red and 2 greens, or all red, etc. When I remove the blindfolds each of you must raise your hand if you see _any_ green dots, i.e. 1 or 2 dots. As soon as you have figured out what color your own dot is, tell me how you knew."
So he paints a green dot on all three foreheads. When the blindfolds are removed, all three hands go up. After a long pause, the wisest person, (that's you!) say, "Your highness, I have a green dot. The reason I know this is that..."
How did you know?
There are two occasions when three hands go up.
When you are red and the other two are green, or when you are all green. But since everybody knows this and nobody speaks immediately you realise that everybody must be seeing two greens like you (or they would have spoken first having seen your red).
Were the two losers put to death or did they all just have a good laugh.
That might present difficulties in how long you took to raise your hand.
I would put my hand up first and guess if it was the former but I wouldn't give a damn otherwise.If I saw two greens I would go green thinking that they had no red paint on account of logistics and were just bluffing to see what competing egos are capable of in the silliness stakes.
Later edit
There are two occasions when three hands go up.
(A) 2 greens and a red, or (B) 3 greens. But since everybody knows this and nobody speaks immediately you realise (A) that if you see 1 red then you are green or (B) the others must be seeing 2 greens like you or they would have spoken first having seen you were red.
to fresco ..... for a) if there is 2 greens & 1 red then two people should figure it out, but if you only P1 is able to figure it out, then how can u asume for choice B) that some1 will figure it out if P1 is wearing a red hat ??
berries,
Thanks for that query which leads to a simpler explanation.
3 hands=2 or 3 greens.
The pause actually indicates that nobody is seeing a red since they would immediately know that they were green. Speaking first means that you are the first to realize this.
edit, two greens , you are one. The other green would put his hand down if you were red.
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