Red Hat Blue Hat

4 shiney stars

There were 4 people sitting in a row, trying to win $50 from a riddle.

The one in front was wearing a red hat.
The second from the front was wearing a blue hat.
The third from the front was wearing a red hat.
The last was wearing a blue hat and is blind-folded.

Each of them were informed that they are all wearing a hat, the last person is blind-folded and that there are 2 red and 2 blue hats. if they can guess the color of their hat, then they win the prize.

There was a long silence, then one of them guessed the color of his hat correctly. Who was it?

Note: they can only see the person(s) in front of them and are not allowed to turn around and see behind them.)



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Answer

It was the second person. The first and last person cannot see other people at all, therefore it is either the third or second. The second person realised that if he and the person in front were wearing the same colored hat, the third person would be able to answer the color of his hat right away. However, since there was a long silence, then the color of the his hat and the person in front must be different.




Difficulty
  • Easy
Type
  • Logic
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Comments

The note stated: "they can only see the person (singular) in front of them..." Ergo, person #3 could only see person #2. So the reasoning in the answer doesn't work. If they could see more than just the person directly in front of them, then the phrase should read, "they can only see the person(s) in front of them."
- tom (30 Jun 2009)

The winner is a blind-folded man. They are sitting in a row and no one infront of them. The three man can't turn and see beside of each other. There fore a long silence. A blind-folded man guess by himself and answer the color of his hat.
- Nan Nwe Nwe (28 Jul 2009)

the winner is the third man. he can see that the second man is wearing a blue hat and realizes that he has a 66.6% chance of having a red hat on and that he can switch his hat with the blindfolded man's if need be.
- (12 Mar 2010)

agrees with tom. the riddle is worded wrongly.
- mel (17 Mar 2010)

Thanks Tom - wording has been fixed
- admin (21 Mar 2010)

If they were only able to see the person in front of them then there would have been no reason to blindfold the last man.
- Erik (22 Mar 2010)

Tom the note actually does say "person(s)" not just singular person
- Bre (9 Jul 2011)

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