Ok...this one's a little tougher, but that makes it more fun right!There are 3 black hats and 2 white hats in a box. Three men (we will call them A, B, & C) each reach into the box and place one of the hats on his own head. They cannot see what color hat they have chosen. The men are situated in a way that A can see the hats on B & C's heads, B can only see the hat on C's head and C cannot see any hats. When A is asked if he knows the color of the hat he is wearing, he says no. When B is asked if he knows the color of the hat he is wearing he says no. When C is asked if he knows the color of the hat he is wearing he says yes and he is correct. What color hat and how can this be? There is no play on words and there are no tricks. If I used had instead of has it is purely accidental.
*note: There's not "trick". It's a logic puzzle.
4 comments:
i looked up the answer. i never would have gotten it.
I love these kind of puzzles. :-) Looking it up can be fun too.
C knows he's in a black hat.
When A looks at B&C, he doesn't know his hat color. If B&C were both in white hats, A would know his hat is black. Therefore B&C must either both be in black hats (of which there are 3), or be in different color hats. Since A does not know his hat color, at least one of the other two is wearing a black hat.
B knows that A couldn't pick his own hat color, which tells him that he and/or C is wearing a black hat. B looks at C and doesn't know his own hat color. That tells C that he must not be wearing a white hat - if he were, B would have known that B is the one with the black hat (b/c at least one of them is wearing a black hat). Since B did not know he was the one in a black hat, C's hat must have been black ... leaving B to wonder if they both had black hats or if only one of them did.
That's how C knew. 'Cause he knows how to think. :)
11/7/2011
Hello Luke
is Donna right?
I have tried to understand how she arrived at the answer and have failed .However if she is right then I will persevere .
Thank you for the census puzzle which i knew years ago and have been looking for on and off ever since.
Regards Rob
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