The Riddles Thread
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Mise
isle of lucy
I like how Tim can reason out that entire thing, but not understand what J's actual question was 
I like El Mac's question, because it gives them all an incentive to say their own colour if known. Other riddles are all like "you have to do this and you have to do that" and so on: they just lay out the rules and you have to accept them, no matter how little sense they make. But in El Mac's question, you don't need to know that they won't lie, or will for certain always say their own colour ASAP. It's also such a simple puzzle conceptually that you don't have to wonder if they are too stupid to work it all out themselves. It's very satisfying for someone as pedantic as me...
I like El Mac's question, because it gives them all an incentive to say their own colour if known. Other riddles are all like "you have to do this and you have to do that" and so on: they just lay out the rules and you have to accept them, no matter how little sense they make. But in El Mac's question, you don't need to know that they won't lie, or will for certain always say their own colour ASAP. It's also such a simple puzzle conceptually that you don't have to wonder if they are too stupid to work it all out themselves. It's very satisfying for someone as pedantic as me...
Timsup2nothin
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I like how Tim can reason out that entire thing, but not understand what J's actual question was
I like El Mac's question, because it gives them all an incentive to say their own colour if known. Other riddles are all like "you have to do this and you have to do that" and so on: they just lay out the rules and you have to accept them, no matter how little sense they make. But in El Mac's question, you don't need to know that they won't lie, or will for certain always say their own colour ASAP. It's also such a simple puzzle conceptually that you don't have to wonder if they are too stupid to work it all out themselves. It's very satisfying for someone as pedantic as me...
Except if they were four real people at least one of them would have panicked and immediately taken a wild guess.
In these sorts of questions, each participant is invariably a totally rational and highly logical person with excellent impulse control.
PhroX
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In these sorts of questions, each participant is invariably a totally rational and highly logical person with excellent impulse control.
Yeah, it's the riddle equivalent of a spherical cow in a vacuum.
onejayhawk
Afflicted with reason
Oh! Someone post the one about 3 people going to a hotel and $3 in change vanishing! People might not have seen that one...
And in a probability-based version, when should the guy behind the wall (in my riddle upthread) shout out a guess, and when? (He doesn't know who shouted on the other side, just what they shouted)
And in a probability-based version, when should the guy behind the wall (in my riddle upthread) shout out a guess, and when? (He doesn't know who shouted on the other side, just what they shouted)
BenitoChavez
What business is it of yours?
Borachio
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Hmm.
This is the problem as originally stated:
1. Where does it say that anyone speaks after the first one calls out?
2. Doesn't it also say that everyone gets shot if someone makes a mistaken guess?
So either the problem is poorly defined, or I can't read sentences correctly, or someone's making stuff up as they go.
There's also an assumption (which may or may not be warranted) being made that D can see all three hats in front of him. Why mightn't his vision of B's hat be obscured by C?
And how would D know that B (or was it C?) had called out? It might have been A, or C.
This is the problem as originally stated:
1. Where does it say that anyone speaks after the first one calls out?
2. Doesn't it also say that everyone gets shot if someone makes a mistaken guess?
So either the problem is poorly defined, or I can't read sentences correctly, or someone's making stuff up as they go.
There's also an assumption (which may or may not be warranted) being made that D can see all three hats in front of him. Why mightn't his vision of B's hat be obscured by C?
And how would D know that B (or was it C?) had called out? It might have been A, or C.
BenitoChavez
What business is it of yours?
Well El Mac was the one who originally posted the riddle so I guess he has the authority to expand upon said riddle if he so chooses.
I suppose since they all get shot if someone guesses wrong, my solution to when A calls out doesn't work out half the time.
Perhaps D can tilt his head his head from side to side which allows him to see B.
I would assume D would be able to differentiate how far away sounds are from him. So when C calls out it seems like he could fairly easily determine the sounds was close to him, so it was very likely not A and probably not B who called out.
I suppose since they all get shot if someone guesses wrong, my solution to when A calls out doesn't work out half the time.
Perhaps D can tilt his head his head from side to side which allows him to see B.
I would assume D would be able to differentiate how far away sounds are from him. So when C calls out it seems like he could fairly easily determine the sounds was close to him, so it was very likely not A and probably not B who called out.
Timsup2nothin
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When C calls out B immediately knows that his is the opposite color, because if his was the same as C then D would have called out immediately...and he knows it was C who called out because of the delay. But D already knows what color B and C were wearing, so he has no more information than he had to start with and all he can do is guess. A now knows where one black hat and one white hat are, but he also does not have enough information to do anything but guess.
Borachio
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I think it's an appalling situation in which to find oneself. Not only is one buried up to the neck in sand looking at either a blank wall or the back of someone's head, one has to indulge some crazy executioner's game of hat guessing.
Timsup2nothin
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At least they are wearing hats instead of burlap bags, and they have tongues so they can call out.
Obscure movie reference:
Obscure movie reference:
Spoiler :
BenitoChavez
What business is it of yours?
The humane thing would to to give the poor fellows some chopsticks to dig themselves out.
Spoiler :
onejayhawk
Afflicted with reason
Enough of the old riddle. Here's a new one.
In Feb 2017 the Super Bowl will be played in San Francisco. It is going to be the shortest Super Bowl in more than a generation. Why?
J
In Feb 2017 the Super Bowl will be played in San Francisco. It is going to be the shortest Super Bowl in more than a generation. Why?
J
madviking
north american scum
it's just 'l' (or '50' if you're dumb like the nfl)
