4 missionaries in peril
Hi guys, I'm new to the site, and haven't finished reading through the complete archives. This makes it possible for me to post a well known riddle. In this case: just shoot it down!
In a world full of mysterious hypothetical civilizations, 4 happless missionarries stumble uppon a village of ferocious cannibals. The cannibals however, always give their prospective meals a chance to escape.
The missionaries are ordered to stand on a small stone pyramid and must remain completely still. Any unauthorized movement will result in their swift end. They are positioned as on the following diagram:
The small v's coming out of the heads, represent their viewing direction. As you will have noticed, two are wearing white hats, while two are wearing black hats. The explorers are made aware of this, but cannot know their own colour.
The missionaries are free to go if only one yells out his own colour. No mistakes are allowed. No retries.
How is this possible?
posted by Psyflash at
10:14 PM
9 Comments:
(from the right)the second guy thinks this:
"well,the guy in front of me is wearing a black hat.if a was wearing a black hat as well,then the guy behind me(top most)would have known that his hat is white.and since he has not shouted out the answer,this means i must have a white hat!"
wow that was fast. Too easy? :)
I'll try a more difficult one later today.
None of the missionaries survive. As soon as they open their mouths to say anything, this is interpreted as movement, and they are swiftly dispatched.
For delicious missionary recipes visit my blog on www.eat-a-missionary-today.com
That's why I phrased it as "Any *unauthorized* movement will result in their swift end." Yelling out their color is assumed authorized ;)
Knightmare found the correct solution. I am a little vexed, since I thought it was too cool a riddle to be solved so quickly :)...
Psyflash ...
you will learn that there are some excellent problem solvers here at TOM
How does the second guy know the top guy is looking his way?
Hm, a valid point. I should make the description include, that they know the setup, modulo the colors of the hats.
Are we to assume that the first guy to be allowed to move can tell the others what color their hats are? I assumed no. So the lonley missionary on the left should sacrafice himself by guessing a color. The top man would then know what to say and so on so forth till we have 3 live missionarys. and mabe some christian canabals
[quote : a valid point. I should make the description include, that they know the setup,]
With the new description included it is a doozy, which I had fun with.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home