The Grey Cells - Exercise !

The guy at the back shouts the guy in front's hat colour. He has a 50/50 chance it will be his own too. The guy in front shouts what the guy behind said. They repeat this in pairs to the front of the line. 5 are guaranteed to live and 5 have a 50/50 chance.

Paul

You never said anything else about how they lined up other than, "single file, so that they are each facing the POW in front of them".

Alright then, Ten men. Lined up single file.

If they are allowed to talk to eachother during the process:

- each soldier tells the one in front the color of his hat. When asked by the captors what color each has on he would answer correctly except for the one at the very back.

or

If they are not allowed to talk during the process their plan could be to:

- line up ten men. In pairs they would face eachother. By looking into eachother's eyes they could see the color of the hats in the reflection. Then bingo.

or ...
    
    

Edited by Seko - 28-Aug-2006 at 22:03

Ok, so the guy(s) in the back can't whisper, "Hey dude, your hat is white!" Then the guy with the white hat isn't allowed to cheat and say 'white'. Plus he is not allowed to whisper the correct color of the next guy in front of him.
Well, without that and without any other nonverbal clues they might be screwed. I was thinking they could say the opposite but that leads to nowhere too.

Now that you made my brain hurt, I hope you give us another clue to ease the pain.



Unless...

They are allowed to use a vocal inflection.

For example:

The poor guy piss'n his pants at the back of the line sees the color of the lucky fart directly in front of him. He could say the color in a particular slang (let's say north Amercian midwest English). White! That really means the guy in front has a white hat. Now when it comes to this next guys turn he has to say the correct color of his own hat in order to save his skin. Before he says it out loud, however, he notices the color of the next guy in front and gives him a clue too. If the other guy in front has a 'Red' hat then the guy behind says 'Wayt' with a southern twist. That is the preconcieved way of saying, "Dude, your hat is really Red but I'm saying it this way to give you a heads up and save my own hide in the process.

The same formula could be used for mentioning the color of a Red hat. To something like 'Rad'. Meaning I got a red hat on but the next guy's hat is really white. Lastly if the next guy and the guy behind both have red hats then they just say 'Red' with no accent.

    
    
    

Edited by Seko - 29-Aug-2006 at 09:27

Thanks for easing the pressure that had been building up between my temples.

I thought that ingenious strategy of mine had a chance.

Now back to your clues,

- one word

- it's mathematical

I need to sort this one out.

Partial answer - The guy in the back would say a number. I get that much. What number(s)? Hmm. Help! Invictus, it's your turn!

Which information would be most useful for them, expressed in ONE word?

Does that include hyphenated words, or made-up words? Does a long string of numbers count as a word? Can it be multi-syllable? How many letters longs can the words be? (for example, I can encode a white/red sequence by selecting a certain word with an alphabetical order that matches the sequence.)

One example of the above is to use a word so that for the first two letters, vowels represent white and consonants represent red. That way, the guy behind can pass information for correct color of the next two hats.

Looks like the POW camp needs better rules definitions.


Edited by Imperator Invictus - 29-Aug-2006 at 10:52

Edited by Northman - 29-Aug-2006 at 11:45

Never underestimate the creative abilities of a prisoner in the Northman POW camp.

This place is a hell hole over here. You must be enjoying this!

Originally posted by Imperator Invictus No need for a clearer set of rules - as mentioned in the original post - only one word allowed for each POW. What about the accent of the word or the length during which the word is spoken. Also, can they control how loud or soft the word is spoken? For example: Loud "white" = next two hats are White-Red soft "white" = next two hats are White-White loud "red" = next two hats are Red-White soft "red" = next two hats are Red-Red

Let's say the guy in the back counts four Red hats and five White hats. He then, according to plan, says the color of either Red or White hats out loud. Red being even and White being odd. Prior to this the group is in on the method and know that they will be informed by the first guy. The trick is that guy only mentions the color of either even or odd number of hats. In this case he says 'Red' which he knows there are four of and the group knows they are, therefore, even numbered. Each POW looks infront of him and counts the number of 'Red' (even number) hats. The guy directly in front of the POW at the back of the line see's three Red hats. So he knows he has a red one too. Then he say's Red. The rest of the guys up also see the colors of various red and white hats and can figure out the rest from there.


    
    
    

Edited by Seko - 29-Aug-2006 at 13:28