You are one of 20 prisoners on death row with
the execution date set for tomorrow. Your king is a ruthless man who likes to
toy with his people's miseries. He comes to your cell today and tells you:
“I’m gonna give you prisoners a chance to go
free tomorrow. You will all stand in a row (queue) before the executioner and
we will put a hat on your head, either a red or a black one. Of course you will
not be able to see the colour of your own hat; you will only be able to see the
prisoners in front of you with their hats on; you will not be allowed to look
back or communicate together in any way (talking, touching.....).
The prisoner in the back will be able to see
the 19 prisoners in front of him. The one in front of him will be able to see
18…
Starting with the last person in the row, the
one who can see everybody in front of him, he will be asked a simple question:
WHAT IS THE COLOR OF YOUR HAT?
He will be only allowed to answer “BLACK” or
“RED”. If he says anything else you will ALL be executed immediately.
If he guesses the right color of the hat on
his head he is set free, otherwise he is put to death. And we move on to the
one in front of him and ask him the same question and so on…
Well, good luck tomorrow, HA HA HA HA HA HA!”
Now since you all can communicate
freely during the night, can you find a way to guarantee the freedom of some
prisoners tomorrow? How many?