Thread:PhoenixDragonSamurai/@comment-4389268-20170929112832/@comment-28008011-20180705120916

Trick question: Four prisoners are arrested for a crime, but the jail is full, so the jailer has nowhere to put them. However, he comes up with a solution. He gives them a puzzle to solve. If any of the prisoners can solve the puzzle correctly, all of them will be released. But if any of the prisoners give an incorrect answer, all of them will be executed.

As you can see on the diagram above, the jailer has Prisoners 1-3 lined up on a staircase, facing the direction of this arrow >. Prisoner 3 faces the wall, Prisoner 2 faces Prisoner 3, and Prisoner 1 faces Prisoners 2 and 3. Prisoner 4 is put on the other side of the wall that Prisoner 3 is facing. The jailer puts top hats on all four prisoners. The prisoners are told that there are two black hats and two white hats. The prisoners represented by black cells with white text are wearing black hats. The prisoners represented by white cells with black text are wearing white hats. The prisoners do not know the colors of their own hats. They can only see the hats in front of them.

There are 3 rules that the prisoners must follow.

1) They cannot turn around or move.

2) They cannot take off their hats.

3) They cannot communicate with each other.

If any of the prisoners correctly guess the color of the hat on their own head, all of them will be released. However, if any of the prisoners guess incorrectly or break any of the rules listed above, all of them will be executed. Who is the first prisoner to answer and why?