Hats logic

Logic Level 1

You have 5 hats, 3 black hats 2 white hats, also you have 3 people and 3 chairs. Each one of the 3 is sitting on a chair and sees the others in front of him (The 3 are aligned). Then each of the 3 is given a random hat.

The last on was asked about his hat color, he answered 'I don't know'. The second (the middle one) was asked the same question, he answered 'I don't know'. Though, when the first one was asked , he answered 'Yes, i know' .. What was the color of his hat ?

Grey You can't know Black White

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9 solutions

Charlton Teo
Jul 16, 2014

We gather that from the 3rd person (who can see everything) saying he doesn't know that the first and second DO NOT both have white hats.

If the 1st person was wearing a white hat, the second person would immediately know his was black since they can't both be white as the third person does not know his colour.

However, since the second person does not know his colour, we know that the first person is wearing a B L A C K {BLACK} hat

further explanation is needed

subha jayanthi - 6 years, 8 months ago

How do you assume that the hats are placed in alternative colours? It is placed at random right?

Vikram Venkat - 6 years, 1 month ago

thank u bro , i got it

shenouda malak - 6 years, 10 months ago

Was i to assume they knew i had the hats i had?

Jake Lawrence - 5 years, 8 months ago

If the last person sees the first two are both wearing white hats, then he would know he is wearing black. Since he says no, then the first two are not both wearing white. They are wearing either white-black or black-black.

If the second person sees the first person is wearing a white hat, then he would know he is wearing a black hat. But he says no, this means that the first person is wearing a B l a c k \boxed{Black} hat.

Prasad Sangale
Jul 15, 2014

I was the one with black hat

please can u explain why the black hat

shenouda malak - 6 years, 11 months ago
Ahmed Obaiedallah
Jun 25, 2015

The only time the last one will know what color he wears is if the 2 in front of him are both white \space\textbf {white}\space

The only time the middle one will know his hat color is if the one in front of him is wearing a white \space\textbf { white}\space one also ... by combining the answer of the last one he will know that the last didn't know because he was seeing 1 white and 1 black

The first one will then know that his hat is black \space\textbf {black}\space since the middle one couldn't know

Abhika Mishra
May 5, 2015

The person in the back says "I don't know" which means the two people in front of him don't have both white and white hats (otherwise he would know his color because there are only two whites), they either have black and black or white and black.

The middle person also says "I don't know", if the person in the front had a white hat, he would know he had a black one (He can't have white in this situation because then the person in the back would know his color) , because from what we figured out before the combinations for the front and middle person are white and black or black and black. Because the person in the middle says "I don't know" we know that therefore the person in the front has a black hat.

Skylar Saveland
Jul 18, 2014

The wording is a bit confusing. But, I assume that the one who knows what color hat he is wearing can see that the other 2 are wearing white hats and knows that there are only 2 white hats. He thus can deduce that he must have a black hat because all of the white hats are taken... I guess.

Sarath Raveendran
Nov 27, 2015

We have 3 people, let's name them 1(front),2(middle man), 3(last man who can see everything)

There are three black hats and two white hats. If 1 & 2 both had white hat then 3 will know for sure he has black hat since there is no more white hat.

Now there are 3 situations A. 1 and 2 have black hat B. 1 has black hat and 2 has white hat C. 1 has white hat and 2 has black hat

We know 1 and 2 both cannot have white hat since if it were so 3 would know his hat colour. 2 know this fact too. If 1 has white hat then 2 know for sure he has black. Since black doesn't know his hat colour 1 definitely has black hat.

Shivani R
May 31, 2015

We can assume that the 2nd and 3rd both wear white hats then obviously the 1rst one will only wear a black hat hence he knows the colour of his hat

Curtis Clement
Apr 30, 2015

For the 1st guy to know his hat colour there needs to be only one possible hat colour left after the other 2 have chosen. This can only be done if the other 2 choose white hats and he chooses a B l a c k {Black} hat

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