blahblah99
Platinum Member
You are travelling in a deep, dark forest when, suddenly, on a dark, stormy night, you are captured by the kind-but-not-so-bright forest people. They keep looking at you and saying to each other, "It be a smart person!
You are marched to their village and seated in the square. Before you are blindfolded, you notice two other lucky souls seated in chairs facing you. Then you are told that the forest people king is about to die. He previously sent messengers throughout the land seeking the 3 smartest people. You are one, and two others have also been found. He now gives you all a task to see which one is the wisest.
He tells you, "I have seated you in a triangle so that each of you faces the other two. While you are blindfolded I will paint a dot on each of your foreheads. Each dot will be red or green so that there can be any combination of red and green dots, for example, 1 red and 2 greens, or all red, etc. When I remove the blindfolds each of you must raise your hand if you see _any_ green dots, i.e. 1 or 2 dots. As soon as you have figured out what color your own dot is, tell me how you knew."
So he paints a green dot on all three foreheads. When the blindfolds are removed, all three hands go up. After a long pause, the wisest person, (that's you!) say, "Your highness, I have a green dot. The reason I know this is that..."
How did you know?
Extra credit: assume there are 4 people and all have green dots... can our hero figure it out now?
Note: please don't write, "I knew because I saw that two other hands were up!" or "I guessed!," or, "I saw the reflection in their eyes!" or "I recognized the smell of the paint!" or "The other people's eyes were looking at me when they raised their hands" or "3 green dots are the only fair test" or any other such drivel! If any of those kinds of answers were correct, it would be a terrible riddle!
You are marched to their village and seated in the square. Before you are blindfolded, you notice two other lucky souls seated in chairs facing you. Then you are told that the forest people king is about to die. He previously sent messengers throughout the land seeking the 3 smartest people. You are one, and two others have also been found. He now gives you all a task to see which one is the wisest.
He tells you, "I have seated you in a triangle so that each of you faces the other two. While you are blindfolded I will paint a dot on each of your foreheads. Each dot will be red or green so that there can be any combination of red and green dots, for example, 1 red and 2 greens, or all red, etc. When I remove the blindfolds each of you must raise your hand if you see _any_ green dots, i.e. 1 or 2 dots. As soon as you have figured out what color your own dot is, tell me how you knew."
So he paints a green dot on all three foreheads. When the blindfolds are removed, all three hands go up. After a long pause, the wisest person, (that's you!) say, "Your highness, I have a green dot. The reason I know this is that..."
How did you know?
Extra credit: assume there are 4 people and all have green dots... can our hero figure it out now?
Note: please don't write, "I knew because I saw that two other hands were up!" or "I guessed!," or, "I saw the reflection in their eyes!" or "I recognized the smell of the paint!" or "The other people's eyes were looking at me when they raised their hands" or "3 green dots are the only fair test" or any other such drivel! If any of those kinds of answers were correct, it would be a terrible riddle!
