Thread: Who will shout first...

4 criminals are caught and are to be punished. The Judge allows them to be freed if they can solve a puzzle. If they do not, they will be hung. They agreed.

The 4 criminals are lined up on some steps (shown in picture). They are all facing in the same direction. A wall seperates the fourth man from the other three.

So to summarise :-
Man 1 can see men 2 and 3.
Man 2 can see man 3.
Man 3 can see none of the others.
Man 4 can see none of the others.

The criminals are wearing hats. They are told that there are two white hats and two black hats. The men initially don't know what colour hat they are wearing. They are told to shout out the colour of the hat that they are wearing as soon as they know for certain what colour it is.

They are not allowed to turn round or move.
They are not allowed to talk to each other.
They are not allowed to take their hats off.

Who is the first person to shout out and why?

Man 1 will shout first...Suppose if Man1 will not shout then Man 2 surely shout.

Reason:

Man1 can see the other two criminals hats. If the hats are same color then he told his hat is opposite color of remaining two hats. So he shout first.

If Man1 not shout means that the color of hats (Man2,Man3) is different. So Man2 see the color of Man3 hat and he told the opposite color of Man3 hat is his hat.

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suresh

Originally Posted by jamesravid

4 criminals are caught and are to be punished. The Judge allows them to be freed if they can solve a puzzle. If they do not, they will be hung. They agreed.

The 4 criminals are lined up on some steps (shown in picture). They are all facing in the same direction. A wall seperates the fourth man from the other three.

So to summarise :-
Man 1 can see men 2 and 3.
Man 2 can see man 3.
Man 3 can see none of the others.
Man 4 can see none of the others.

The criminals are wearing hats. They are told that there are two white hats and two black hats. The men initially don't know what colour hat they are wearing. They are told to shout out the colour of the hat that they are wearing as soon as they know for certain what colour it is.

They are not allowed to turn round or move.
They are not allowed to talk to each other.
They are not allowed to take their hats off.

Who is the first person to shout out and why?

1 st is one to shout
else 2 nd

if man 2 and man 3 are wearing same color hat man 1 will shout first!!!

if man 2 and man 3 are wearing different color hat man 1 will be silient from that man 2 will come to know they(man2 and man 3) both wear different color hat so man 2 will shout first!!!

That was a cool puzzle.

Hi,

Man 1 can see man 2 and man 3 but is not able to tell what color hat he wears because man 2 and man 3 wear different color hats. So man 1 will not shout out. Then from man 1's reaction, man 2 is able to tell that he (man 2) and man 3 wear different color hats. Since man 3 wears black color hat, so man 2 knows he himself wears white color hat.

Man 3 and man 4 are not able to tell what color hats they wear since they can see none of the others.

Thanks
Maneesh S.

hi friend..

The man 1 will shout because he is able to view 2 and third persons hat.. if he shouts others can identify the order of hats

Thanks
Deepasree

Man 1 shouts first if Man 2 and Man 3 wears same colour hat but if they don't wear same colour hat then Man 2 shouts.

Man 2 will shout....cause he knows if man 1 doesn shout it means man2 and man3 have different colors..from this he will guess the answer easily as white