Logic

[aznangel]

oh i get it! they all struggled because they all saw 2 blue hats so the hats must all be blue...this was tricky

[aznangel]

oh i get it! they all struggled because they all saw 2 blue hats so the hats must all be blue...this was tricky

sry i accidently double clicked this...

[KoibitoKoi]

Originally Posted by Conjar

The important information is that in the first few seconds all three wise men would know that there are more than one blue hat (if there were only one blue hat, one of the three wise men would see two white hats and straight away say that his hat was blue).

Now let assume that there are two blue hats and one white hat. In this case two wise men would see one hat of each colour and since they know that there cannot be only one blue hat they would quickly deduct that their hat is blue. But neither of them claims that his hat is blue, meaning that all wise sages see two blue hats.

Which leaves us with the only possible solution that all hats are blue, and our hero stood up and said: "The colour of the hat I am wearing is blue."

Perfect hehe

"There is only one case which forces the three sages to sit in silence - three blue hats. Our sage, through his sharp wits was the first to reach this conclusion."

Good job everyone!

[listersgirl]

a blue hat makes perfect sense to me.

[Kalyra_Shadowdancer]

wow.. that took me a bit to sort out the logic involved with that one, but blue makes sense now! great riddle! I enjoyed it

[darkshadowmage]

i've heard similar jokes but they all involve the fact that you have to wait a while before someone says something. The similar riddle is where three people are facing the same direction and lined up and can't see behind them. They can only see forward where the man in the front can't see anything and the one behind him can see the two in front. Each has a hat on and there are two colors but never more than 2 hats of the same color. The question goes on to ask AFTER A WHILE, one of the guys says they know the color of the hat. Who is it?

[xenocacia]

Originally Posted by KoibitoKoi

I found this one on another site.. see if you can grasp the logic behind the solution That's the more interesting part


The three wisest sages in the land were brought before the king to see which of them were worthy to become the king's advisor. After passing many tests of cunning and invention, they were pitted against each other in a final battle of the wits.

Led blind-folded into a small room, the sages were seated around a small wooden table as the king described the test for them.

"Upon each of your heads I have placed a hat. Now you are either wearing a blue hat or a white hat. All I will tell you is this- at least one of you is wearing a blue hat. There may be only one blue hat and two white hats, there may be two blue hats and one white hat, or there may be three blue hats. But you may be certain that there are not three white hats."

"I will shortly remove your blind folds, and the test will begin. The first to correctly announce the colour of his hat shall be my advisor. Be warned however, he who guesses wrongly shall be beheaded. If not one of you answers within the hour, you will be sent home and I will seek elsewhere for wisdom."

With that, the king uncovered the sages' eyes and sat in the corner and waited. One sage looked around and saw that his competitors each were wearing blue hats. From the look in their eyes he could see their thoughts were the same as his, "What is the colour of my hat?"

For what seemed like hours no one spoke. Finally he stood up and said, "The colour of the hat I am wearing is . . ."

His hat is definitely blue! Reason: If his hat were white, then anyone else would be able to easily deduce the colour of their own. If his hat were white, any of the other wise men would see one white, one blue. He'd then think, 'if my hat were white, the other guy would immediately know his was blue! so, mine MUST be blue. QED.' So, since no one else responded, then his HAD to be blue.

Maybe I should be the advisor instead.. haha..