Three Men In Three Suits

Logic Level 2

Three friends, Mr. Green, Mr. Red and Mr. Blue, were returning from a party. One man wore a green suit, one wore a red suit, and one wore a blue suit.

The man in the blue suit said to the others: "Have you noticed that none of us is wearing a suit color that matches our own name?"

Mr. Red then turned to him and exclaimed "You're absolutely right!"

Assume everyone spoke the truth, what color suit was Mr. Green wearing?

Green Red Blue Not enough info

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8 solutions

Anish Harsha
Sep 2, 2015

Mr. Red \color{#D61F06}{\text{Mr. Red}} replied to the man in the Blue suit \color{#3D99F6}{\text{Blue suit}} , who could either be Mr. Blue \color{#3D99F6}{\text{Mr. Blue}} or Mr. Green \color{#20A900}{\text{Mr. Green}} .
However, because none of the men are wearing the color that matches their name, it cannot be that Mr. Red \color{#D61F06}{\text{Mr. Red}} is replying to Mr. Blue \color{#3D99F6}{\text{Mr. Blue}} (otherwise Mr. Blue would be wearing the suit that matches his name).
So it must be that Mr. Red \color{#D61F06}{\text{Mr. Red}} is replying to Mr. Green \color{#20A900}{\text{Mr. Green}} .
So Mr. Green \color{#20A900}{\large\textbf{Mr. Green}} is the man in the blue suit \color{#3D99F6}{\large\textbf{blue suit}} .

Mr Green is wearing a red or a blue suit. If he is wearing a blue suit, Mr Red is wearing a green suit and Mr Blue the red suit. f Mr. Green is wearing a red suit, Mr Red is wearing a blue suit,because if this wouldn't be happening Mr Blue would be wearing the blue suit (impossible). But this is also impossible because Mr. Red turned to the man wearing the blue suit exclaming, so the only solution is Mr. green is wearing the blue suit. I wanted to add this like a new solution but I can't do it because I'm not B2.

Guillermo Templado - 5 years, 9 months ago

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It is not necessary that only the members of B 2 B^2 only put solutions. See, I'm not a member of B 2 B^2 but I have put a solution too. Anyway, Thanks for your solution :) .

Anish Harsha - 5 years, 9 months ago

(G,B,R)---(b,r,g)---(r,g,b)

Đức Nguyễn - 1 year, 4 months ago

I don't understand why it is impossibile that mr. Green is wearing red suit, mr. Red blue suit and mr. Blue green suit

Francesco Serafini - 5 years, 3 months ago

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Mr. Red would be answering to himself.

Santi GL - 5 years, 3 months ago

it doesn't say they all have absolute truths. so I put not enough information is given and I had this question wrong... but logically I'm right. one guy could gave lied and said we don't have the same suits as our names, and the other could have sarcastically agreed.

Blake Martin - 5 years, 4 months ago

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Thats what i put

Wyatt Bryan - 4 years, 11 months ago

Questions is right my friend , read question ones again.

Kashish Chandel - 5 years, 4 months ago

I pressed blue, but I got it wrong. :(

Nyang Ruot - 5 years ago

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I looked into your attempt and it says that you selected the answer of Red. Do you firmly believe that we recorded this incorrectly?

Calvin Lin Staff - 4 years, 12 months ago

Oh! Thanks! *Facepaws

Panda Aradia - 5 years, 5 months ago

youre saying mr blue could be in blue suit based on the first sentence?

Mark Crassus - 5 years, 2 months ago

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In my opinion both blue and red are correct options... Chose red "wrong"

Iason Konstantinou - 2 years ago

Couldnt the man in the blue suit be wearing a red suit?

Nicolas Weimar - 4 years, 11 months ago

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The man in blue is mr green as shown in the above debate. So the man in green must be mr. Red and finally the man in red must be mr. Blue. Had there been four or more peoble, it would have not been posible to say, without more information.

Thomas Oppenlænder - 2 years, 9 months ago

I am sure this question is incorrect. There it's not enough information

Nicolas Weimar - 4 years, 11 months ago

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Nope buddy. There's already enough info.. just u need to understand it well😜.. Mr. Red turned and replied to the guy in blue not to Mr. Blue.. so if he's not Mr blue then probably he is Mr. Green in blue

Aniket Sahu - 1 year, 11 months ago

Lol i answered blue and got incorrect!

Ricky Carrig - 4 years, 11 months ago

In the Question doesn't say that nobody knows the color of his own suit, so we haven't enough informations!

Johannes B - 4 years, 11 months ago

I must have a different worded question, it states that Mr Red tuns to "HIM", not "the man in the blue suit"...answer is "not enough info".

Randy Reed - 4 years, 10 months ago

"None of us IS wearing" vs "None of us ARE wearing".. This got me, which is to say that I misread the information. Dammit, grammar.

My mind omitted the first 'n' of 'none' making it read "One of us IS"..

Justin Hawkins - 4 years, 9 months ago

The thre men are together and can see all suits. The solution that Mr. Green is wearing red, Mr. Red is wearing blue, and that Mr. blue is wearing green is also perfectly acceptable. The suggested solution introduces a constraint that is not in the original question.

Royce Reinecke - 3 years, 9 months ago

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Mr.Red is replying to tne man in the blue suit so cannot be the man in the blue suit

Elijah Odunsi - 1 year, 11 months ago

I got the answer wrong, but inspired by your logic, wich is wrong, I got it right. Your mistake is in the first sentence: Mr. Blue can not be wearing blue as you state. The blue suit is either mr. Red or Green but since the reply is from mr Red, the blue suit is in fact mr Green.

Thomas Oppenlænder - 3 years, 5 months ago

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His solution is correct. He is just slowly eliminating options of what who is in the blue suit, instead of jumping to the immediate conclusion like you did. To elaborate,

  • The first line is that "Mr red talks to the person in blue suit", hence the person in the blue suit isn't Mr Red.
  • The second line is that "None of the men wear a color matching their suit", hence the person in the blue suit isn't Mr Blue.

Calvin Lin Staff - 3 years, 5 months ago

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I was simply following the terms of the quiz instead of making assumptions not taking those terms into consideration. I suppose had he put a “but since” instead of a full stop between sentence one and two, I would have gladely accepted the logics. But noone is perfect.

Thomas Oppenlænder - 2 years, 9 months ago

I cant understand why Mr. Green is not wearing red suit.

Nilabho Dasgupta - 2 years, 11 months ago

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Because Mr. Blue is wearing the red suit. One suit each color.

Halil Oguz - 2 years, 4 months ago

The question is twisted and very logical. Read carefully: Mr. Red, wearing Green because he is talking to the man in Blue, who cannot be Mr. Blue and can only be Mr. Green. While Mr. blue is wearing Red. Awesome!

Amaan Khan - 2 years, 5 months ago

i misread the question again :'(

Fabian Martin - 5 years, 3 months ago

We know that no one is wearing a suit that matches their names. This means that:

Mr. Red: Blue or Green

Mr. Blue: Red or Green

Mr. Green: Blue or Red

Additionally, Mr. Red replies to the man in the blue suit. This means that:

Mr Red: Not Blue

We now have:

Mr. Red: Green

Mr. Blue: Red or (Green-not possible anymore, Mr. Red has it)

Mr. Green: Blue or (Red-not possible anymore, Mr. Blue has it)

The final result:

Mr. Red: Green

Mr. Blue: Red

Mr. Green: Blue

Conclusion: Mr. Green wears a blue suit.

Technically, Mr. Red could be speaking to himself aloud. In which case there are two possible scenarios for color distribution.

John Coody - 4 years, 10 months ago

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Really? We asume that the men are not schizophrenic.

Halil Oguz - 2 years, 4 months ago

Why is Mr Red not blue. That does not follow. He is simply pointing out that Mr Blue is not in a blue suit, and that he is not in a red suit. That would be true if Mr. Blue is in a green suit, and he is in a blue suit.

Royce Reinecke - 3 years, 9 months ago

Why mr red can not wear blue. He is not blue guy but he can wear blue.

Xuân Hoàng Võ - 3 years, 1 month ago

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Then he would speak with himself

Halil Oguz - 2 years, 4 months ago

The part in your answer... because the red guy agrees with the blue guy, what kind of logic do you use to support the claim Red, not blue??? You can’t! Red by agreeing with Blue, is like saying, (yes neither you Mr blue wears blue, nor I Mr red wear red, and neither Mr green wears green)

Solutions

1). R=g........b=R..... G=b...............

2). R=b.......b=G...G=R

So THERE IS NOT ENOUPG INFORMATION! THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

Emmanuel Moysis - 2 years, 6 months ago

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The most important information is that Mr Red cannot wearing blue beacause he would speak then with himself.

Halil Oguz - 2 years, 4 months ago

Replying/agreeing with himself might be possible according to some people. But the problem even states he turns to face the man with the blue suit. I think that really is impossible if he would be replying to himself.

Roland van Vliembergen - 2 years, 1 month ago

This part of the comments was SOOO helpful, thank you Emmanuel. It was your comment which I was going to agree with in a heated expose explaining how stupid the previous explanations were and that there was definitely not enough info, but in starting a reply of my own I was forced to re-read the question to ensure accuracy of what I was typing, after which I noticed that they were not just blue and red talking, but alas, one is blue while the second was "Mr RED", which was not a colour reference. That changes everything. Hence: Mr.Green must be wearing the blue colour. big sigh of relief Thanks again Emmanuel :-)

Dale Leighton - 2 years, 1 month ago
Rishabh Purohit
Sep 4, 2015

Situation is as follows in picture 1

1st situation is not possible because they are not wearing what is their name

so,situations left B R G and,R G B <as in picture 2 shown>

now man wearing blue says that" none of us is wearing a suit color that matches our name" and MR. red Turned to him<one wearing blue shirt>

So. Mr. red is not wearing Blue Shirt.So situation 3 is also wrong<shown in picture 3>

HENCE we find that situation 2 is correct and mr. green is wearing BLUE <shown in picture 4>

picture 1 picture 2 picture 3 picture 4

This is not a good question. When reading, I assumed that each man knew each others names, meaning that the name of the man asking the question and the name of the man being asked was irrelevant. This means that there is not enough information in the question.

Cole Smith - 4 years, 5 months ago

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I completely agree with Cole. The writer of this has poorly articulated the scenario. It is completely possible for Mr. Green to wear the blue or the red shirt. Just because the man in the red suit said, "your absolutely right" Please explain why this eliminates him from wearing a green or a blue shirt. This question needs to be reviewed. I'm pretty sure someone messed up.

Mike Parx - 3 years ago

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True, I also thought that Mr.Green was wearing red color shirt. Confusing question as its not clear why it eliminated the red shirt.

Haaran Ajgaonkar - 2 years, 10 months ago

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@Haaran Ajgaonkar I agree. There's no reason to assume that just because Red agrees that it means he must not be wearing green.

Clint Worley - 2 years, 8 months ago

wonderful idea. I did the same on paper

Avinash Kamath - 5 years, 6 months ago

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Well, not luckily. He left the other combinations aside because they contradict the info given (nobody wears the same color as his name).

Bip 901 - 2 years, 4 months ago

These 3 aren't the only combinations possible, however. There are actually 3! = 6 combinations possible. Then, not just 1, but 4 of them are left out with the statement that nobody wears the same color as their names. That luckily leaves out the same two left out as in this answer, leading this answer luckily, but only luckily, to the right answer.

Utkan Gezer - 3 years, 4 months ago

Mr. blue could wear green, Mr. red Could wear blue, Mr. green could wear red

Claire Violet - 2 months ago
Tanish Mathur
Apr 15, 2021
  • Mr. Green or Mr. Red is wearing a blue suit. as Mr. Red turned to him so that means the man with the blue suit has to be MR.GREEN

The man in the blue suit said to the others: "Have you noticed that none of us is wearing a suit color that matches our own name?"

Mr. Red then turned to him and exclaimed "You're absolutely right!" if that is the case then the guy in the blue suit is not Mr. Blue because according to his "true" statement none of them has the same color as their name. He is not Mr. Red because Mr. Red is a different person, he is the one that replied to the guy in the blue suit. So Mr. Green is the guy in the blue suit

Nawaf Alotaibi
Sep 9, 2018

Man with blue suit made a statement ( either Mr. Red or Mr. green ) and made Mr. Red turn to him which indicated that the person who was speaking is Mr green. So Mr red looked to Mr green wearing a blue suit which makes sense that Mr. red was wearing a green suit. That indicated that Mr blue is wearing red.

Evelyn Teng [5J]
Jun 19, 2018

First, let's draw a table and we know each man cannot wear the same colour suit as his name, so we cross it out.

Then, we know that the man in the blue suit cannot be Mr Blue or it will contradict Mr Red's statement. It also can't be Mr Red because he is the one speaking. So the man in the blue suit must be Mr Green.

Since the blue suit has been taken and Mr Red cannot wear a red suit, Mr Red wears a green suit. As for Mr Blue, the green and blue suit have already been taken, so he wears the red suit.

Here is the completed table:

John Kievlan
Jan 15, 2016

I got it right, but only by assuming, with no confirming information, that the wearers of the suit don't know what color they are wearing. To be a valid problem, that should be stated.

This is the third "logic" problem today I've found with a glaring flaw, and I am rapidly coming to realize that to solve a "Brilliant" problem one must assume there are glaring flaws and hunt for them before answering the question. Just saying. I'm going to go do other stuff now.

John, I disagree with “I have to make the assumption that the wearers of the suit don’t know what color they are wearing”.

Perhaps the information that you missed was “Mr Red replied to the man in the blue suit”, which indicates that Mr Red is not wearing the blue suit. Then since he’s not wearing the red suit either, he must be wearing the green suit. We can then conclude that Mr Blue is wearing the red suit and Mr Green is wearing the blue suit.

If you think that there is a "glaring flaw" in a problem, you can report the problem (through the menu options), which will notify the problem creator. Brilliant staff will look into it a week later, if the problem creator does not respond to you.

In general, the popular problems have been reviewed by the community, who has caught most of the "glaring flaws". You will see the following banner at the top of such problems

Calvin Lin Staff - 5 years, 4 months ago

If none of them knew what colour they are wearing then they couldn't make the statement about not matching their name!

Jason Appleton - 4 years, 11 months ago

I totally agree with you. That's why I chose 'Not enough information'.

The question should state that these men don't know each others' names (although they are friends) OR that a man can't see what color is his suit.

There's a flaw here.

Κώστας Τζούμπας - 4 years, 12 months ago

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These men have to know each other;s names and are able to see the color of their own suit, in order to say that "Have you noticed that none of us is wearing a suit color that matches our name?". Hence I disagree with your claims.

The important bit of information is the "Mr Red is not wearing the blue suit". From there, you can figure out the rest.

Calvin Lin Staff - 4 years, 12 months ago

Why couldn't these two variations be used??
----------NAME----------------|-GREEN-|---RED---|---BLUE---|
======================|=======|=======|========|
POSSIBLE SUIT COLOR-1--|---RED---|--BLUE--|--GREEN--|
POSSIBLE SUIT COLOR-2--|--BLUE---|-GREEN-|---RED----|



bp kline - 4 years ago

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Note that the main in the blue suit is not mr red, because "Mr Red then turned to him (the man in the blue suit)". This eliminates "possible suit color 1".

As indicated in the solutions, "possible suit color 2" is the correct scenario.

Calvin Lin Staff - 4 years ago

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Thanks, missed that. Mr. Red turned to the man in the blue suit ... so that eliminates combination #1 ... good.

bp kline - 4 years ago

I agree with you, John! The only information there is is that they're not wearing a matching name colour suit (that's a hard thing to write); there's no information regarding the conversation, hence Mr. Blue, regardless to whom he may have spoken to, could be wearing a red or green suit! Mr. Red a blue or green suit, and Mr. Green a red or blue suit.. Not enough informational! This should be the correct answer.

João Barros da Silva - 3 years, 8 months ago

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You have considered the "first layer", and found that there was no contradiction as yet. However, that doesn't mean that the system is logically consistent. It might be that as we dig further, we find a contradiction.

For example, suppose that Mr Blue is wearing a green suit, which means that Mr Red is wearing a (non-red, non-green, hence) blue suit, then would Mr Red be able to "turn to the man in the blue suit"?

Calvin Lin Staff - 3 years, 8 months ago

I wanted to select Blue, but this needs some unreasonable assumptions. This is how it would work: "HAT COLORS Quiz 2" https://brilliant.org/practice/hat-colors/?p=1

Thomas Leitner - 2 years, 8 months ago

The hint is Mr Red talking to the blue suited man. which means, Mr red is not wearing a blue suit, instead he is wearing a green suit. So, to match the condition, Mr Blue is wearing a Red suit and Mr Green is wearing Blue suit.

Anwesha Chakraborty - 1 year, 12 months ago

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