Solution to the Three Hat Problem

Solution:

Alice reasons that if her hat were black then Barbara would know at once that her hat is white, because that would be the only way to explain Charlotte’s raised hand. But Barbara doesn’t know the color of her hat; so she must be seeing a white hat on Alice’s head.

This is rather different from what happens in “What’s That on My Head?” because in the game you don’t rely on what the other players are thinking. But maybe in a rare instance you could take into account the reasoning of other players.


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