April 15, 2015
Problem of the Week
for Tuesday, April 15, 2015
In the second season of the quiz show called "Hats", a black, white, or red hat is placed on the three teammates' heads, and the team wins the competition if exactly one of them guesses correctly the color of the hat that he wears. Each will see the hat on the other two players' heads but not the one on his own.They have no way of communicating or sending signals to each other once the hats are placed and will not even have the benefit of hearing each other's guess. If they are allowed to meet beforehand to work out a strategy, what plan will guarantee a victory? (hint: you might want to assign the black hat a value of zero, the white hat a value of one, and the red hat a value of two.)