100 Wise Men

There's 100 wise men plotting to assassinate the King.  The King finds out about the plan and summons them to the castle square.  The King finds it in his heart to give the wise men a chance to live.  He orders them to line up facing the same way one in front of the other and places either a red or blue hat on each of them.  To live, each wise man must correctly yell out the colour of his hat - red or blue.  If a wise man calls out a colour that is not the colour of his hat then the King kills him silently.  The wise men cannot communicate with each other while lined up, but can have a discussion before hand.  They cannot touch each other or say thing else except for either blue or red once, indicating the colour hat they think that have on their head.

The wise men devised a plan that will guarantee 99 wise men will be saved.  HOW?

Now put on your thinking hats guys.  Only yes and no questions.

Is the king a dwarf?
But seriously, for those who WEREN'T there today, would it work if there were only 99 wise men?

No.  If there were 99 wise men, it wouldn't work.  For it to work, the first wise man at the end of the line must be able to see 99 hats in front of him - or any odd number hats for that matter.  In other words, there must be a total of even numbers of wise men. (Big hint)

Some questions (I'm guessing the answer is probably no to both of them though):

1. Does the king have an equal number of red and blue hats to put on people's heads?
2. Do the wise men in any way attempt to guess how the king is going to distribute the hats in their discussion beforehand?

THEY'RE PROSTITUTES!

1. Does the king have an equal number of red and blue hats to put on people's heads?

Irrelevant

2. Do the wise men in any way attempt to guess how the king is going to distribute the hats in their discussion beforehand?

There is not guessing.  99 wise men's lives are guaranteed to be saved.

Think about what the first wise man sees in front of him.  99 hats.  Now, what does that imply about the proportion/number of blue and red hats? 
For this to work, the wise men down the line must also listen to what colour hat all the wise men behind him has.

I can do better.

I could save 99 to a hundred of them. (1 up to chance)

It's not what they, but how they say it.

Assuming that the

first wise man sees in front of him.  99 hats. 

all that has to be done is that the first man says the colour of the hat infront of him. By chance, if his hat is the same, he lives. If not, he dies. That's the ONE.

The second man knows the colour of his hat (maybe by an act of sacrifice). So he now says it. But if the colour of the hat on the man infront of him is the same as his own, he says that one word in a falsetto. If it differs, he says the same word, but in a deep bass tone. That way, all that the men have to do is attend to the tone of the man immediately behind him.

Very simple.

And, even better, it has nothing to do with the:

proportion/number of blue and red hats? 

Or,

the wise men down the line must also listen to what colour hat all the wise men behind him has.

 which frankly would be UNWISE. I mean, you're assuming that they all have awesome memories, and that's a stretch, especially under stressful conditions. Additionally, foul-ups would complicate the matter, especially if the king 'kills them silently'. They wouldn't know if a mistake was made, and consequently miscount.

No.

In my answer, you admittedly have to trust that all the 100 men are not psycho, or bear a grudge against the man infront. But in the 'listen down the line' scenario, you have to assume all those conditions as well as that each man has amazing abilities of recollection, and can see down the line (unlikely, if straight line. Near people would block far people, who are 'smaller' on the retinal scale).

Best call?

Big voice, little voice. Plus it would be friggin hilarious to overhear. ^{Blue Blue} _{Blue Red Blue}

Good try Hapgood, but no.
They have to all speak in the same volume and pitch.
And they are wise men, ie. good memories!

Try again.

The only conclusion I can draw so far is that if there is an odd number of hats in front of the nth wise man, there must be a colour that is in the majority in the hats in front.

However, my first question was definitely not irrelevant. If we consider a case in which there are 50 red hats and 50 blue hats, then, by counting the numbers of red and blue hats in front of him, the first wise man would know what colour to choose in order to live. The second man, knowing that the first man must have been able to choose correctly, would then be able to work out the colour of his hat, with the knowledge of both what is in front of him and what is behind him. This would continue up until the last wise man and so 100 lives would be saved instead of 99. In fact, in any case in which the numbers of red and blue hats are known, all of them would be saved.

Just to add a further complication to all of this, I have been told an answer (and checked it) that would work regardless of how many wise men there are - as in even if there's an odd number of wise men it will still work - perhaps a bonus point for someone who gets that answer as well?

Ok Nat... what I mean is what if the king does not have an equal number of red and blue hats?  But your explanation there is very close... so close. 

Jesse??? You've got to be kidding!

Yeah, I know, I was just making the point that that first question I asked you wasn't really irrelevant. So are we assuming that the distribution of hats is completely random then?

No it's true, there's a bigger and better answer  There we go, the first smilie I've ever used I think

Lynch mob and kill the king all at once. Then restore any who died with the special liquid aslan gave lucy in the lion the witch and the wardrobe!
Am I right? Am I right? 

Um, Jesse, sweetie, sorry to burst your bubble, but  is a shocked face.    is a smile face.

Nat, yes, the distribution of hats can be absolutely random.  The King may decide to have 10 red and 90 blue hats.