Thread: a logic problem (Hat Problem)

Originally Posted by Pensive Patrick

Is anyone else gonna try this question?

I've seen the question and the solution twice, and it annoyed me because I got it wrong and then couldn't work out why I was wrong :-).

[SPOILER, this doesn't make sense unless you know the solution]
Another counterintuitive fact about the winning strategy is that if you take a given person, they guess wrongly *more* often than they guess right. But the group wins more overall - and thats because when one person guesses wrong, everyone else does in the same game, but when they win the game its because exactly one person has guessed, and they're right.

Pat: don't worry about the death of threads. It just happens.

I know that problem. The solution is insanely difficult. Figuring it out by yourself is really quite something, congrats.

Originally Posted by Umbrella

I know that problem. The solution is insanely difficult. Figuring it out by yourself is really quite something, congrats.

Thanks. It was a very rare flash of genius.

Pensive if that's the answer then I guess I got it right - and I thought my logic was stupid to

I pictures red/blue in my mind, then I pictured blue/blue... and OH... hehe (maybe this will confuse people some more)

Well in that case, I'll remove my answer so I don't spoil it for the next person,

yeah... exactly

Originally Posted by sourcejedi

I've seen the question and the solution twice, and it annoyed me because I got it wrong and then couldn't work out why I was wrong :-).

[SPOILER, this doesn't make sense unless you know the solution]
Another counterintuitive fact about the winning strategy is that if you take a given person, they guess wrongly *more* often than they guess right. But the group wins more overall - and thats because when one person guesses wrong, everyone else does in the same game, but when they win the game its because exactly one person has guessed, and they're right.

Pat: don't worry about the death of threads. It just happens.

I think you are talking about a similar but different problem. In this one you can't win if everyone answers wrong, and the strategy doesn't have to work 100%... you just need to win 3/4 of the times.