Three logical people, A, B, and C, are wearing hats with positive integers painted on them. Each person sees the other two numbers, but not her own, and each person knows that the numbers are positive integers and that one of them is the sum of the other two.

They take turns (A, then B, then C, then A, etc.) in a contest to see who can be the first to determine her number.

During round one, A, B, and C pass. In round two, A and B again pass, at which point C states that she now knows all three numbers and that their sum is 144.

How did C figure this out?

(In reply to guys or dolls ?? by Ady TZIDON)

Ady, as I wrote when the problem was in the queue, I kept the original text, which states "persons".

Possibly, the title I put could have been "Three persons, three numbers".

Anyway, in nowadays, words like "guys" can be used for both genders... donīt you think?

Posted by pcbouhid on 2009-05-04 10:52:01