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perth · 01-24-2003, 01:18 PM

so being the npr nerd i am, i was browsing the cartalk website this morning and happened upon their puzzler section. ive always had a thing for puzzles and riddles. im no good at solving them, but i like to try just the same. the rules from the lyrics trivia thread apply here. no googling (or yahooing or whatever) and the person who gets the answer to the puzzle posts the next one. ill start, this is a fairly easy one paraphrased from one i read at the cartalk website.

the puzzle:
there are three highly-qualified applicants for a job, and the hiring manager is having a very difficult time choosing from between them. He calls them in and says 'i simply cannot decide which of you to hire, so ive devised one test, and whoever answers (correctly) first will get the job. this test is completely fair, and no one will be placed at a disadvantage.'

the manager places four hats on his desk. these hats are identical in every way except that three are black and one is white. he tells the applicants that he is going to blindfold them and place a hat on each of their heads. he will then remove the remaining hat from the room. the blindfolds will then be removed and the first applicant who can correctly say what colour the hat on his head is will get the job.

so they begin the exercise. each applicant is blindfolded and the manager places a hat on each head, tossing the extra out into the hall. as he is getting ready to remove the first blindfold, one applicant raises his hand and says 'i know which colour hat is on my head'. he says which colour and is correct.

the questions are, what colour was his hat, and how did he know?

~james

01-24-2003, 01:18 PM	#1
perth Strong Silent Type Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Fort Collins, CO Posts: 1,949	puzzlers so being the npr nerd i am, i was browsing the cartalk website this morning and happened upon their puzzler section. ive always had a thing for puzzles and riddles. im no good at solving them, but i like to try just the same. the rules from the lyrics trivia thread apply here. no googling (or yahooing or whatever) and the person who gets the answer to the puzzle posts the next one. ill start, this is a fairly easy one paraphrased from one i read at the cartalk website. the puzzle: there are three highly-qualified applicants for a job, and the hiring manager is having a very difficult time choosing from between them. He calls them in and says 'i simply cannot decide which of you to hire, so ive devised one test, and whoever answers (correctly) first will get the job. this test is completely fair, and no one will be placed at a disadvantage.' the manager places four hats on his desk. these hats are identical in every way except that three are black and one is white. he tells the applicants that he is going to blindfold them and place a hat on each of their heads. he will then remove the remaining hat from the room. the blindfolds will then be removed and the first applicant who can correctly say what colour the hat on his head is will get the job. so they begin the exercise. each applicant is blindfolded and the manager places a hat on each head, tossing the extra out into the hall. as he is getting ready to remove the first blindfold, one applicant raises his hand and says 'i know which colour hat is on my head'. he says which colour and is correct. the questions are, what colour was his hat, and how did he know? ~james Last edited by perth; 01-24-2003 at 01:50 PM.