A Maths Puzzle: Salem Witches

I made a puzzle, I made props, I made a video. But can you work it out?

Category:

Education

Tags:

• maths
• puzzle
• witches

[CogitoErgoCogitoSum]

They are obviously both witches and have found a way to beat the test

[someonep93]

Well, if p1 guesses the same color as p1's card and p2 guesses the color not on p2's card they will always survive.

All three distinct cases using this tactic:

RR gives guess BR - they survive

BB gives guess BR - they survive

BR gives guess BB or RR - they survive

[nothinisworthit]

@bscutajar someonep93 figured it out... it's like this if p1 (player 1) gets a red card, he guesses red, and let's say p2 gets a black, p1 was wrong so they survive, but now let's say p2 gets a red, p2 needs to simply predict the opposite color of his which is black and since p2 was wrong, they both survive

[bscutajar]

solution?

[bscutajar]

solution? i dont understand any of these comments

[SlothScripts]

Clever trick, one player is set to pick the colour of their own card and the other the opposite.

Take, for instance, the player who picks their own colour: if the opposing player has the same colour as them, then the opposing player will have predicted incorrectly, thus surviving. If the opposing player has a different colour then them, they will have guessed incorrectly, thus surviving.

One of the guesses will always be right, but only one.

Probably already posted but yah;

[JamiJami91]

sorry...I forgot you need guess wrong to survive so predict always your own color

[JamiJami91]

But the other one needs to know this trick too and you need to decide which one predicts his own color and which one predicts the opposite of the own color, right? so if the other suspect is not your friend you may get killed.but if the other suspect is a total stranger for you when this trick doesn't work, can't you still increase the chance of survival by always choosing the opposite of your own color. cause if you got red the other suspect has 25/52 red and 26/52 black.

[roddy0]

An attempt to explain how this works without maths: Considering black cards only, in every case which results in death, the total number of black cards predicted = the total number in hand.

BB = BB

BR = BR

RB = RB

RR = RR

It is thus sufficient to ensure the totals do not match. If one player predicts the opposite of his card, that will create the imbalance. The other player simply needs to preserve the imbalance by predicting according to his own card.

I hope that wasn't even more confusing...

[AnthonyWilder]

Solution?