The 100 Green Eyes
On an island, 100 people, all perfect logicians, are trapped on an island and imprisoned by a mad dictator. If they approach the security guards at night and ask to leave, and if they are green eyed, they will be released. Otherwise, they will be thrown into a volcano. Apparently, all of them have green eyes. But there are no reflective surfaces on the island, and they've been there since they've been there since birth. And they are NOT allowed to communicate with one another. Finally, one day you are allowed to go on the island and make one statement without providing them with new information. What do you say?
This section requires Javascript.
You are seeing this because something didn't load right. We suggest you, (a) try
refreshing the page, (b) enabling javascript if it is disabled on your browser and,
finally, (c)
loading the
non-javascript version of this page
. We're sorry about the hassle.
Lets say there are only 2: A and B A sees B and thinks If B is the only green eyed person then the statement only refers to him. B thinks vice versa so the first night passes This time they gain new info (it was via telling everybody simultaneously) A thinks: If B sees a non-green eyed person (Me), he would have left. But he didn't. So i'm green eyed too. So add people on and on til you reach 100 P.S. It's not a good idea if you say that at least 99 (or 100!) of them have green eyes. It's a mad dictator, you know!