Logic puzzle

**Sasaki Kojiro** · 10-31-2004, 03:35

The king is having great problems in his country so he decides to hire the wisest man in the kingdom to be his advisor. 3 wise men show up for the position and he has them undergo a test to see which is wisest. He has them each sit on a chair in a room with no mirrors. He then puts a red hat on each of their heads without telling them what color their hat is. He tells them that their hat is either white (

) or red(

). He asks them to raise their hand if they see a red hat on one of the others. He then asks them what color their own hat is. After a few minutes one of the wise men stands up and says "My hat is red". The king gives himt he job.

How did he know?

**LittleGrizzly** · 10-31-2004, 03:46

because both the other guys had thier hands up ?

**Sasaki Kojiro** · 10-31-2004, 03:52

They could be seeing each others hats.

**LittleGrizzly** · 10-31-2004, 04:28

well im guessing that isn't the answer but if i saw 2 red hats either side of me and both of them with thier hands up i'd guess mine was red

**Skomatth** · 10-31-2004, 05:27

POSSIBLE SPOILER

I swear I came up with this on my own...

I know its a breathtaking solution but...

He took it off his head and looked at it.

Didn't say you couldn't.

Of course there are a lot of things that are undefined here.

**Adrian II** · 10-31-2004, 05:50

Got it. Het knows the colour of his own hat because none of the two other guys raised his hand.

Suppose you're wise man #1. You're looking at #2 and #3 sitting there with their red hats on. They can see each other's red hats, too. They're bound to raie their hands if they see one of the others wearing a red hat. Now, if they don't raise their hands, that means only one thing: they see two guys wearing red hats, and you're one of those two.

Do I get a badge now?

**ichi** · 10-31-2004, 07:33

Originally Posted by Sasaki Kojiro

The king is having great problems in his country so he decides to hire the wisest man in the kingdom to be his advisor. 3 wise men show up for the position and he has them undergo a test to see which is wisest. He has them each sit on a chair in a room with no mirrors. He then puts a red hat on each of their heads without telling them what color their hat is. He tells them that their hat is either white (

) or red(

). He asks them to raise their hand if they see a red hat on one of the others. He then asks them what color their own hat is. After a few minutes one of the wise men stands up and says "My hat is red". The king gives himt he job.

How did he know?

Do all three guys raise their hand? The question is a little unclear cause it says they should raise their hand if they see a red hat on one of the others. That could be understood to mean only one or both.

If all three raise their hand then there is a way to explain it.

He can see the other two guys are wearing red hats. If his hat was white, then the other two guys would be seeing one red and one white hat, and either of the other two guys would easily figure out that their hat must be red. Since neither of the other two said anything, it was logical for him to think his hat was red.

ichi