Brain Teasers
Guess Your Color to Escape!
A warden at a prison decides to give some prisoners a chance to escape by working together to solve a puzzle. He prepares a colored hat for every one of them and tells them the rules. The hats can be either black or white and will be placed on everyone's head. The prisoners will get a chance to discuss a strategy together, which they will all follow, then they will be marched out into a large room where they will see everybody else's hat color. Each prisoner will then simultaneously guess which of the two hat colors they have. If every one of them is right, or every one of them is wrong, they will all go free. However, the prisoners will not be allowed to communicate in any way during this process. Also, the warden will hear their strategy and place hats any way he can to prevent them from going free. What strategy do they use to escape?
Hint
Think about it for two people and then three people. What will be the difference between what a white hatted person sees and a black hatted person sees?Answer
Every prisoner should count up how many black hats they see. If they count an odd number of black hats, they say that they have a black hat. If they count an even number of black hats, then they say that they have a white hat.Hide Hint Show Hint Hide Answer Show Answer
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