another brain teaser

Ned Flanders · Post by **Ned Flanders** » Wed Mar 13, 2002 3:17 pm

The scene...prohibition in the U.S.

The place... a private watering hole. Right now five guys are drinking whiskey at the bar each patron has hung his hat on the hat rack. There are three white hats and two red hats.

The cops...raid the place and the lights go out. each patron grabs a hat and sprints out the back door with the cops in pursuit. All five guys are running down the alley, two of the five take the first left in the alley while the other three continue in a straight line.

The question...centers around the three guys continuing down the alley. The guy at the front asks the guy in the back, "Without looking at your own hat and only looking straight ahead, do you know which color hat you're wearing?". He answers "No." The guy at the front then asks the guy in the middle, "Without turning around to look at the guy behind you and looking at your own hat, do you know which color hat you're wearing?" He answers, "No." The guy at the front of the pack of the three says, "Cool, I got the right color hat."

Which color hat is he wearing???

Der-draigen · Post by **Der-draigen** » Wed Mar 13, 2002 3:24 pm

OMG a word problem!! I thought I was done with these

This reminds me of the analytical portion of the GRE... *shudder*

Well, to answer the question...I have no idea

frogus · Post by **frogus** » Wed Mar 13, 2002 3:28 pm

If the last guy in the line could see two red hats, he would know that his was white. So he must be seeing either two white hats or a white and a red. The next guy, because of his infallible powers of deduction, figures out then that if he could see a red hat, then he must be wearing a white hat, in which case he would know. So he can only see a white hat. The front guy figures it out like that - he is wearing a white hat.
*they stop* 'I think the cops are off us.'
'thank ****. that shine was making my logical lateral thinking so clear I thought I was gonna turn into Yshania....'
'I don't think there's any danger of that happening Bloodstalker...now let's get back to the tavern.'

Yshania · Post by **Yshania** » Wed Mar 13, 2002 3:31 pm

White

Ned Flanders · Post by **Ned Flanders** » Wed Mar 13, 2002 3:45 pm

I'm going to guess white also. Oh, wait, it's my puzzle.

Word · Post by **Word** » Wed Mar 13, 2002 6:01 pm

He's wearing blue he is a copper!!

Xandax · Post by **Xandax** » Wed Mar 13, 2002 11:57 pm

Originally posted by Ned Flanders
<snip>

Which color hat is he wearing???

Black and white.
There were no colours at that time, just look at the movies and pictures