Can you beat a MENSA riddle?

Question

This is a pretty good riddle, but a little complicated.
"4 strangers are travelling through the desert and are captured by bandits. The bandits decide to toy with them, so bury all 4 of them in the sand, 2 wearing a white hat, and 2 wearing a black hat. The furthest to the right is wearing a white hat, facing the wall. The next is wearing a black hat, facing towards the wall. The next is wearing a white hat, facing the wall. The last is on the other side of the wall. Quick diagram:

Black> [wall]
Arrows show which way they are facing. So, the bandits say the first to guess what colour hat they are wearing will go free, the rest will be shot. So: Which of the strangers in the sand has a almost flawless method to get the right answer?

It is a pure logic answer, so nothing weird like:
-reflections
-heat
-x ray vision
-etc etc

It is a good riddle, but pretty hard. I didnt get it but was impressed when someone got it right. Good luck!

Answer 1

ok on the right of the wall between the 2 whites is the black, he knows as the man behind him can only see 1 of each so as the furthest from the wall see both colours the man in the middle knows its him as he can see a white hat. the silence of the 3rd guy gives it away

Answer 2

Mensa Riddles

Answer 3

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
Can you beat a MENSA riddle?
This is a pretty good riddle, but a little complicated.
"4 strangers are travelling through the desert and are captured by bandits. The bandits decide to toy with them, so bury all 4 of them in the sand, 2 wearing a white hat, and 2 wearing a black hat. The furthest to the right is wearing...

Answer 4

Easy peesy lemon squeezy! The middle guy (black hat) has the almost flawless plan (which is flawless in this scenario).

To explain I will give each guy a number.

Black 1 > [wall]
If the hats were moved and both 2 and 3 were wearing the same colour, then 4 would win because he would have to be wearing the other colour (as they know that there are only two of each coloured hat)

However, in this instance, number 4 is helpless as there is a hat of each colour in front of him.

Which gives 3 the answer. He can see that the guy in front is wearing a white hat. He can also deduct if he was also wearing a white hat, guy number 4 would have already shouted out "black".

If after a short time he has not heard anything come out of 4's mouth, it becomes obvious that number 4 has 2 different colours of hat in front of him, and because he can see the white one in front of him, he knows his own hat must be black.

Answer 5

Ok, let's redo the diagram a little:

(1)black--[wall]- <(2)white- <(3)black- <(4)white

OK, numbers 1 and 2 are pretty much screwed, because they're both facing the wall. If number 4 ever saw two of the same color, he'd be fine, but he doesn't. Number Three, therefore can deduce since number four doesn't know what color his hat is, then hat number 3 MUST be different from number 2, and, since he can see hat number 2... He knows his hat is black.

Answer 6

The guy in the white hat between the 2 guys in black hats. He would be able to see that his neighbours would be looking a lot hotter than he feels, one seeming hotter could just be the difference in individuals; both looking hotter than he feels would mean he could deduce that he was cooler because he has a white hat on!

Answer 7

Ok, this is my idea. The guy in the middle sees a white hat in front of him. He waits for a second, and he knows that if he is waering a white hat too, the guy behind him will see two white hats and will yell out that he is wearing black.

He doesn't ear the guy behind yell out, so he knows the guy behind must be seeing a white and a black. As he can only see a white, he figures that he must be wearing black and yells this out.

Is this the right answer?

Answer 8

The black hatted one in the middle of the three. He can see the hat in front of him is white therefore if he was white also the guy behind him would say he must be black because he can see two whites. When the the guy at the back says nothing the guy in the middle knows he must be wearing black. Simple

Answer 9

The one on the far right gets the guy on the other side if the wall to throw his hat over and thus knows the colour of the other 3 hats.

Answer 10

If the captives are informed of the 2white/2 black portion of the test, the man in the black hat on the right side of the wall will be able to see the other two hats are white, and deduce that his is black.