Matemática – Deu no NYTimes: Why Mathematicians Now Care About Their Hat Color
Three players enter a room and a red or blue hat is placed on each person’s head. The color of each hat is determined by a coin toss, with the outcome of one coin toss having no effect on the others. Each person can see the other players’ hats but not his own.
No communication of any sort is allowed, except for an initial strategy session before the game begins. Once they have had a chance to look at the other hats, the players must simultaneously guess the color of their own hats or pass. The group shares a hypothetical $3 million prize if at least one player guesses correctly and no players guess incorrectly.
The same game can be played with any number of players. The general problem is to find a strategy for the group that maximizes its chances of winning the prize.

Este quebra-cabeças matemático está ajudando os cientistas a entender melhor algoritmos de programação que podem ser usados para tornar sua conversa no celular mais clara, seus arquivos MP3 menores e, até mesmo, entender melhor a matemática em si.