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Take a break and try to figure out this brain-melting riddle

It’s a tricky one.

SO, IT’S a bank holiday Monday and you’ve just been abducted by alien overlords.

The aliens want to eat you and the nine others they’ve captured, and the only way you can save yourself is by proving that you’re a logical being.

As a test, you’re lined up from tallest to shortest (so that you can see everything ahead of you), with each person wearing either a black or white hat.

To get out alive, nine out of 10 members of the group have to figure out the colour they’ve been assigned, without looking behind them or saying any word other than “black” and “white”.

How can it done? Ted-Ed explains.

TED-Ed / YouTube

Read: Clerys may be gone, but Clerys Santa will still be here this Christmas

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25 Comments
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    Mute Shaun Gallagher
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    Oct 26th 2015, 11:06 AM

    With the amount of drink I had last night I’ll just let them eat me.

    297
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    Mute James Doherty
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    Oct 26th 2015, 11:19 AM

    if an aeroplane bumps into a cloud and it’s wings fall off, how many tenners does it take to cover the floor of a dog kennel?

    154
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    Mute Benton Oswald
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    Oct 26th 2015, 1:34 PM

    Green turkeys?
    If correct I’d like to wager 20 Quatloos on the newcomer.

    21
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    Mute Ursus Major
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    Oct 26th 2015, 3:07 PM

    If it takes 6 weeks to walk a fortnight, how many apples in a barrel of peas.?

    22
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    Mute John Strahan
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    Oct 26th 2015, 11:50 AM

    If aliens are clever enough to get here, they’ll already know that eating red meat causes cancer, and they’ll just bugger off

    142
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    Mute Philip Cooper
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    Oct 26th 2015, 11:05 AM

    I’ll just lather up with some peanut butter then.

    If you’re gonna be dumb, be tasty.

    80
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    Mute Andy Byrne
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    Oct 26th 2015, 11:51 AM

    To be honest it’s not set up well here or in the video you would need to listen to the first part of the answer to get the full picture. What they don’t tell you in the set up here is that the tallest person in the back must go first and in the video they don’t tell you that the 10 people are allowed to agree what they can do beforehand.. It’s impossible without knowing those two pieces of information before trying to figure it out..

    64
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    Mute Missyb211
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    Oct 26th 2015, 1:10 PM

    You don’t need the first part of the answer to get the full picture! Everything was explained fully in the video. They do tell you that the10 can agree beforehand ,at 1:25 mins the aliens say, “now you have five minutes to discuss and come up with a plan…” ! It’s brilliant!

    14
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    Mute catkins407
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    Oct 26th 2015, 11:15 AM

    I’d say they could eat me at their own peril. Im way past my best before date :)

    54
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    Mute murt de murty
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    Oct 26th 2015, 11:33 AM

    If it took a man a week to walk a fortnight in his bare feet with his mother’s boots on.what would it take to sand an elephant into a mouse?

    50
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    Mute Mr D
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    Oct 26th 2015, 11:15 AM

    Pfffft, everyone knows God didn’t create aliens! You’re not gonna catch me out with those hookey stories about super intelligent beings in the sky

    36
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    Mute alpha_chaarlie
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    Oct 26th 2015, 11:44 AM

    If they were that smart, they wouldn’t be in prison…

    26
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    Mute lotto blotto
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    Oct 26th 2015, 12:26 PM

    doesn’t the tallest simply tell the person immediately in front of them what colour hat they have on their head. and all the way down the line. the tallest doesn’t have someone to tell him so he’s the missing one. 9 out of 10 know with a 50/50 chance of the 10th getting it right too

    25
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    Mute Missyb211
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    Oct 26th 2015, 1:16 PM

    NO. Only one person is allowed to get it wrong. If the second person is white and the next one down is black, your way would mean that the second guy has to say the colour that is opposite to his own, therefore forcing him to give the wrong answer for himself and game up for them all!!!

    11
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    Mute jason bourne
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    Oct 26th 2015, 1:24 PM

    Yeah but what if the 9th person has a black hat on and says black (as he was told) and the 8th person has a white hat.

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    Mute Boyne Sharky
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    Oct 26th 2015, 1:33 PM

    Or the 9 of them could go all Will Smith on the 3 aliens, beat the ever loving shite out of them and walk away with an alien spaceship, works for me.

    5
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    Mute James Brophy
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    Oct 26th 2015, 12:25 PM

    Just take the hat off the person in front of you and put it on your head. Number one at the front is bbq

    23
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    Mute Ferg Flannery
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    Oct 26th 2015, 11:46 AM

    How can it done? – that confused me more than the riddle

    21
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    Mute dowthebow
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    Oct 26th 2015, 12:18 PM

    I suppose they’re gonna want to probe me too, best get it over and done with…

    13
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    Mute William Willis
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    Oct 26th 2015, 12:11 PM

    This is based on the famous “kings wise men” test used to determine if a robot can show self awareness. A robot demonstrated this recently in Japan. The answer resides in the null answer.

    9
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    Mute stephen
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    Oct 26th 2015, 2:12 PM

    When I “take a break” as u suggest, brain shuts down.

    6
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    Mute Jho Harris
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    Oct 26th 2015, 12:29 PM

    If they agreed to eat Joan and Ends first I’d glad give my life to the cause, having said that, once they devoured I’d do FG & L by claiming that I had thought it might be possible to comply but…..

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    Mute Accord Moan Eye
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    Oct 26th 2015, 2:06 PM

    Yawn. Change the record please!

    11
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    Mute Grumpeee Oldman
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    Oct 26th 2015, 1:48 PM

    Each member calls out the colour immediately in front of them. The person in front then knows what colour they are, except the one on the very left

    3
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    Mute Martin Byrne
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    Oct 26th 2015, 2:14 PM

    So the person behind me says black but the person in front of me has a white hat. We’re doomed!

    The parity solution is great.

    7
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