Sunday, February 1, 2009

Three wise men.

Three wise men were sitting around a table and arguing who is the smartest one. A stranger walked by and they asked him to resolve their conflict. The stranger thought and agreed. He told them that he has 5 hats in his bag: 2 white hats and 3 black hats. The wise men should close their eyes while he would pick 3 hats from his bag and put on their heads. The wise men can then open their eyes and, looking at each other, figure out what color hat is on their own hat. The smartest of them would be the one who will first correctly figure out his hat color. The wise men agreed and closed their eyes. Stranger put 3 black hats on their heads. Wise men opened their eyes, each seeing two black hats in front of them. They all thought for a long time. Then one screamed that he figured out that he also has a black hat. How did he do it? (this puzzle was told to me by my father)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Let's name them A,B and C. A is the wisest. He thinks: suppose I have a white hat. Than B would look and think - if A has a white hat and I have a white hat, then C would see 2 white hats and would claim a black one. So in that scenario B would know he has a black one,since he's wise. But he is silent and not sure, so A must have a black hat. Something like these:)

Anonymous said...

Lets name them as follows: the one who came up with the right answer - #1 and the two others #2 and #3. The #1 analyzes what goes through the minds of #2 and #3. He thinks: “Suppose I wear white hat. Then #2 would think: “I (#2) am not wearing white hat, otherwise # 3 would immediately realize that he wear black hat which is no-brainer. Since #3 dose not make a call, I (#1) have black hat.” In otherworld, had one of the hats be white someone would immediately come up with an answer. The Black Hats are generally pretty wise :-)
Sasha S.

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