Can you solve the famously difficult green-eyed logic puzzle? - Alex Gendler
Why Mathematics Stack Exchange recommends it
Mathematics Stack Exchange users link it as the canonical statement of the green-eyed (or blue-eyed) puzzle when asking about why the outsider's announcement adds information or whether the argument holds.
Recommended by 1 people across 1 different months, 2016 to 2024.
What it is
A TED-Ed animated lesson by Alex Gendler on the green-eyed logicians puzzle, where 100 perfectly logical prisoners with green eyes must deduce their own eye color after a single public statement. It walks through the induction argument step by step in under five minutes.
What people said
Recommends StudentInFinance · 2021-09 · Mathematics Stack Exchange · on “Is the argument in the "100 people with green eyes" riddle correct?”
Here is the 100 green eyes riddle: Imagine an island where 100 people,all perfect logicians, are imprisoned by a mad dictator.There's no escape, except for one strange rule. Any prisoner can approach the guards at night and ask to leave. If they have green eyes, they'll be released. If not, they'll be tossed into the volcano. As it happens, all 100 prisoners have green eyes, but they've lived there since birth, and the dictator has ensured they can't learn their own eye color. There are no reflective surfaces, all water is in opaque containers, and most importantly, they're not allowed to communicate among themselves. Though they do see each other during each morning's head count. Neverthele
Cites ClayKaboom · 2016-03 · Mathematics Stack Exchange · on “(Green/blue)-eye logic puzzle. Statement validation”
There is a logic puzzle aiming on freeing same-color-eyed people from an island. The thing is that they must be certain of their own eye color so that they can leave. For that reason an external party must provide a [single] statement containing no piece of new information to the crowd. This puzzle is described in the following link: [this video] Blue eyes: a logic puzzle [LINK] The answer provided is, basically (disregarding the eye color, which could be green or blue) : "At least one of you has blue eyes", or "I can see that at least one of you has blue eyes". It could even be "At least n-1 of you has blue eyes".; However, when I introduced this puzzle to a few friends of mine, one of them ment
Cites Vight · 2024-10 · Mathematics Stack Exchange · on “100 green eyed prisoner puzzle: Why can't the prisoners figure it out on their own?”
Refering to the 100 green eyed prisoner puzzle from the TED-Ed video [this video] : Summary from a different question: Imagine an island where 100 people,all perfect logicians,are imprisoned by a mad dictator.There's no escape,except for one strange rule. Any prisoner can approach the guards at night and ask to leave. If they have green eyes, they'll be released. If not, they'll be tossed into the volcano. As it happens, all 100 prisoners have green eyes, but they've lived there since birth, and the dictator has ensured they can't learn their own eye color. There are no reflective surfaces, all water is in opaque containers, and most importantly, they're not allowed to communicate among themselve