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The many sages (Posted on 2004-04-13) Difficulty: 3 of 5
This is a generalisation of "The three sages"

On a hot summer day, n equally bright philosophers, tired from all that philosophising, were napping in an orchard. A prankster came by, and painted all of their faces black with charcoal.

When the philosophers woke up, they started laughing at the others... until they suddenly realised all of their faces must be black!

How did they come to that conclusion?

See The Solution Submitted by e.g.    
Rating: 2.3636 (11 votes)

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On a hot summer day... | Comment 20 of 25 |
Perhaps each philospher, seeing that all the other philosopher's faces were black, need only feel the sunshine on his own blackened face to know that his face was also black since it would feel hotter than normal because the charcoal would absorb the sun's heat more than his bare skin.
  Posted by Sing4TheDay on 2004-04-21 10:04:48
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