Riddle me this!

[tauzreborn]

Three kidnapped people are forced to stand on the "Stairs of Death". Their kidnapperstraps a hat on each of his victims. They are only allowed to face forwards, so they cannot see the color of their own hat, only the color of the hat of the one or two people in front of them (depending in which position they are). The hats they are wearing have been chosen from a pile of two red hats and two blue hats.The victimsknow that there are only two reds and two blues, but do not know which they are wearing (assume they cannot look up at the bill of the hat to see the color).


If they speak to one another all three will be shot immediately (not even a whisper and for those of you who like to cheat - you cannot use the morse code or any other type of communication).


All three men will be shot in one minute unless one of them shouts out (correctly!) the color of their own hat.


Who shouts out and how do they know the color of their hat? (Work out the answer for the most difficult situation!)





Stairs of Death Schematic


http://www.intellectualloafing.com/noframes/images/stairspic.gif http://home.att.net/~carl.herrington/man_shooting_gun.gif

[Littlemeyer]

:ggrin::ggrin::ggrin:

LOVE the schematic! You won't believe this, but this same exact scenario actually happened to me about 3 years ago. Unfortunately, some other guy yelled out what color his hat was to save all of us, and I have NO IDEA how he knew. Well, perhaps I shouldn't say 'unfortunately', I mean he did save our lives, but I never got a chance to ask to guy how he knew...

I'll have to think on this one for a while, and I'm leaving for Nashville in about 30 mins...may not be able to see the answer until Sunday! :shock:

[Littlemeyer]

Question....can any of the 3 victims see the 4th hat?

[tauzreborn]

No. They can only look forward. This is a fierce kidnapper and would not compromise his torture by exposing such valuable information.

[tauzreborn]

Put yourself in each position and think about what you would do.

Without compromising your life, make a decision that does not result in 50% accuracy.

And lets assume that these three victims are relatively intelligent.

[tauzreborn]

To start, if position 2 and 3 have on red hats, then position 1 can easily deduce that he must have on a blue hat. So he shouts out "BLUE" and they all go free.

But what about if position 2 and 3 have different color hats.

[Dr. H Lecter]

Just curious....is the stair located in LA and do any of these guys know Jack Bauer or work for CTU?

Also for future reference, so as to save on the "cannot see the bill of their caps" caveat you could say these were arab terrorists (duh...are there other kinds?) and they placed red or blue yarmulke's on their Jewish victims heads.Everyone would know that these would only be visible from above and behind. This adds a nice visualto the story.


Now for my answer..... Id reach for the light switch from the previous riddle we solved and quickly turn off the light....and then I'd run.

[tauzreborn]

Dr. H Lecter wrote: Just curious....is the stair located in LA and do any of these guys know Jack Bauer or work for CTU?

Also for future reference, so as to save on the "cannot see the bill of their caps" caveat you could say these were arab terrorists (duh...are there other kinds?) and they placed red or blue yarmulke's on their Jewish victims heads.Everyone would know that these would only be visible from above and behind. This adds a nice visualto the story.


Now for my answer..... Id reach for the light switch from the previous riddle we solved and quickly turn off the light....and then I'd run.

The kidnapper has decided to let the others go but keep the good Dr. Lecter for more testing.

He has strapped you to a chair and you are forced to watch a continuous video of every missed shot, dropped pass, and sack in UK history. (much like in Clockwork Orange)

After three days of this, he switches themes. Nowyou are forced to watch every dunk, three-pointer, and iffy call that Duke has had in their history.

Three days later he lets you go. You are now a Duke fan and of course, now you suck.

See what happens when you T9(3825) a stranger in the T9(277). You should have just guessed!

[Mr. Peanut]

Allright, one I can get!

If you are #2, and the guy behind you doesn't scream out an answer, then you know you are a different color than the one in front of you.


Do you think the bad man with the gun would still keep Lecter if I asked him...?

[Dr. H Lecter]

Mr. Peanut wrote: Allright, one I can get!

If you are #2, and the guy behind you doesn't scream out an answer, then you know you are a different color than the one in front of you.


Do you think the bad man with the gun would still keep Lecter if I asked him...?


If you cannot look behind you then how are you to know that someone is actually on the stair behind you?

Actuallyyou are right. Good catch.

[PatioDaddio]

Three days later he lets you go. You are now a Duke fan and of course, now you suck.


BWWWWAAAAAHHHHHAAAAAHHHHHAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is without doubt, the funniest post I have ever read on this board!

yep, peaNUT's got it, #2 gets 'em all frreeeeeee.......

[PatioDaddio]

....but for the "worst case" scenario....I cannot figure out how #3 could guess (deduce?) correctly....

you got an answer?

[tauzreborn]

Only one of them has to answer correctly. #3 position should never guess because he has no information.

You are right about the situation in which #1 only has a 50% shot. #2 must realize that #1 would say something if #2 and #3 where the same.

[Littlemeyer]

Good job Peanut. I've been thinking about this one all weekend. Nice...

[PatioDaddio]

Hey Tauz......

What you need to do, is keep using variations of the "now you suck" scenario....ohhhh...just every once in awhile in any ol' post.....it'll morph into something big, I tell you!

Now, riddle me THIS:

If a man talks in the forest, and there's no one around to hear him...........

















wait for it......

















....is he still wrong?

[tauzreborn]

A man is always right as long as his wife/girlfriend is not around. And in the latter case he is always wrong.