[Guest]

You are a respected politician of your nation. The Ruler of your nation recently died. You and two other candidates have been chosen to compete for the position of Supreme Ruler of the Nation. It is the night before the competition and these guidelines are explained to you. You three will be placed in a room with one door and minimal light. There are no windows in the room. Now before the competition in the morning you will all be put under a deep sleep. Now during your sleep our contest officials MAY place a tattoo on your forehead. There is an issue of pain that comes with a tattoo when its given so all contestants will be given a drug to numb the body, regardless of whether or not they recieved the tattoo.

Now here is how the contest will work...

You will awake in the room tomorrow morning. You will have none of your posessions in the room during the contest.

When you awake you will see the other two contestants in the room. If any of the other contestants have the tattoo on their head, you must laugh until the contest is over.

Now heres how you win. If you are the first to person to walk out the door with the tattoo on your head you win and will be the new Ruler of your Nation. However if you walk out of the room without the tattoo on your head the guard outside will immediately kill you.

You awake in the room the following morning feeling numb and slightly drowsey. You look around and you see the other two candidates in the room. You notice they both have the tattoo, and they are both laughing. There is relatively low light in the room and no reflective surfaces. An overwhelming feeling comes over you, and you realize this won't be nearly as easy as you anticipated.

How do you know if you have the Tattoo?

[Guest]

feel your forehead. a new tatoo raises teh skin where the ink was applied. Even you are drugged you would be able to feel the new ink

[Guest]

doesn't everyone have the tatoo on their head - just to make it fair. Im frily sure this is on the forum already

[Guest]

All three of you are laughing. That means there must be more than one tattoo.

That means the only choices for you is:

Tattoos on both other persons

Tattoos on all three of you

You should not walk out if and only if no one else is walking out.

This is because:

if no one is walking out, that means there must be a tattoo on everyone's heads.

because, if there was only 2 tattoos, that means they are on the other two persons (not you). Each of them will see one tattoo on one person's head and none on the other. Since there must be at least 2 tattoos in total, by deduction, they will realize that each of them has a tattoo on their head and fight to get out.

[Prime]

If you didn't have a tattoo on your forehead, the two laughing idiots would not be sitting there waiting for you to wake up -- they would be jammed in the door.

Hearing the two of them laugh even with your eyes closed, your strategy is to get up while rubbing your eyes, not to seeing anything. Then dash towards the door with a loud laugh, so that no one can accuse you of cheating and not starting laughing in time.

Of course, there is a possibility of a failure. Suppose one malevolent candidate did not see a tattoo on any of the other two. Still he stayed put laughing to see the other two rushing for the door and get executed. If he himself did not have a tattoo, the other two candidates might be perplexed: why is that one guy without tattoo is laughing and the other does not? If the malevolent one did have tattoo, then two honest candidates would run for the door and get executed. If all candidates are malevolent and tricky (as they should be) -- all bets off, an infinite regression in reasoning ensues..

I mean, I did not see anything in the rules prohibiting from laughing even if you don't see any tattoos.

Edited November 3, 2008 by Prime

[Guest]

You obviously have a tattoo on your head. If you wake up and one of the other two people have a tattoo on their head and they are laughing. you know its you who has the tattoo that they are laughing at. so you would then get up and walk out. Now if they both have tattoos and one of them is laughing then you wouldn't be sure if it was you or the other person the 1st one is laughing at. so the only thing you can do is laugh. therefore the 3rd would know he has a tattoo on his head.

[Guest]

doesn't everyone have the tatoo on their head - just to make it fair. Im frily sure this is on the forum already

I agree, it seems the only way the election could be fair is if every one had a tattoo, or if no one had a tattoo and the last man alive gets to be the ruler (but that is not stated)

[Guest]

I know this is old but I think the real question here is...

If you wake up and both your opponents are laughing, but neither of them have the tattoo, what do you do?

[Guest]

Well you see that the two canidates have tatoos and are probably laughing at each other, (since if they laughed at you then it would be too obvious) and so you would have to decide by looking at the reflection of the dim light (1 way) and by using logic which is if you didnt have a tattoo you wouldnt be the ruler and youd just kill yourself, so you'd walk out no matter wha.