Riddles/Brainteasers

[EverettKings]

OK, this one was pretty good:

[ QUOTE ]

Three gods A , B , and C are called, in some order, True, False, and Random. True always speaks truly, False always speaks falsely, but whether Random speaks truly or falsely is a completely random matter. Your task is to determine the identities of A , B , and C by asking three yes-no questions; each question must be put to exactly one god. The gods understand English, but will answer in their own language, in which the words for yes and no are “da” and “ja”, in some order. You do not know which word means which.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is IMPOSSIBLE unless you construct some complicated logic such that 'da' and 'ja' have specific meanings. That is, if you don't know if 'da' means yes or no, you can't do this. I can prove this separately if someone cares.

However, if you wanted to ask someone a question A and have them answer 'da' for yes, and 'ja' for no you'd say:

Is (A true and 'da' means yes) OR (A false and 'ja' means yes).

If A is true and 'da' means yes, they'll answer yes, or 'da'. If A is true and 'da' means no, the equation will be false and they'll say no, or 'da' (either way if A is true they say 'da'). If A is false and 'ja' means yes, they'll answer yes, or 'ja'. If A is false and 'ja' means no, they'll answer no, or 'ja' (either way if A is false they say 'ja'). Now you have forced a meaning onto da and ja, and can pretend they just spoke English and said yes or no.

This assumes they answer truthfully. If they answer falsely, they'll always answer the opposite, so it works. And if they answer randomly it doesn't matter what your logic is.



Anyway, now that they're answering yes/no to us, I have to figure out the rest. (retreats to thinking chair to ponder)

[Pudge714]

KidLifeCrisis,

Don't feel too bad whenever I show someone that question there is one person who thinks its really easy and they are brilliant and they can get in like 10 minutes.

G dollaz
1) Baseball
2) Cards.

[chicken10der]

I'm a huge riddle nerd, and this is a variation of my favorite one of all time-

A plane crashes on an island (to make it Lost-related, of course). There is one survivor (Jack), and he discovers a hatch that has running water. There is a note on the faucet that reads:

There are six hatches on this island, numbered 1-6. If you drink water from one of their faucets, you become poisoned. If you do not drink water from a higher-numbered hatch's faucet within three hours, you will die. This is hatch #1.

Jack also finds a map. It points out the locations of five of the hatches, with a notation that hatch #6 is hidden and locked up so that only a member of the Dharma Initiative with a key can access it. As Jack is reading this, a man walks into the room. He introduces himself as Benjamin Linus of the Dharma Initiative. He is none-too-pleased to see Jack on his island, but being the dealmaker that he is, he makes Jack an offer:

Jack and Ben will each take an empty bottle, fill it with water, and bring it to the site of the plane crash at midnight. There, they will switch bottles and drink.

Ben lets Jack take the map and they part ways. Midnight comes, and they drink from each others' bottles. The next morning, Ben is dead and Jack is alive. How did Jack pull it off?

And no, Jack did not steal Ben's key or even stumble upon the hidden hatch #6.

[EverettKings]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm a huge riddle nerd, and this is a variation of my favorite one of all time-

A plane crashes on an island (to make it Lost-related, of course). There is one survivor (Jack), and he discovers a hatch that has running water. There is a note on the faucet that reads:

There are six hatches on this island, numbered 1-6. If you drink water from one of their faucets, you become poisoned. If you do not drink water from a higher-numbered hatch's faucet within three hours, you will die. This is hatch #1.

Jack also finds a map. It points out the locations of five of the hatches, with a notation that hatch #6 is hidden and locked up so that only a member of the Dharma Initiative with a key can access it. As Jack is reading this, a man walks into the room. He introduces himself as Benjamin Linus of the Dharma Initiative. He is none-too-pleased to see Jack on his island, but being the dealmaker that he is, he makes Jack an offer:

Jack and Ben will each take an empty bottle, fill it with water, and bring it to the site of the plane crash at midnight. There, they will switch bottles and drink.

Ben lets Jack take the map and they part ways. Midnight comes, and they drink from each others' bottles. The next morning, Ben is dead and Jack is alive. How did Jack pull it off?

And no, Jack did not steal Ben's key or even stumble upon the hidden hatch #6.

[/ QUOTE ]

Is only one hatch's water poisoned?
Does higher-numbered mean, for example, if 3 is poisoned you must drink from 4, 5, or 6?
After the drink swap, can they go back to hatches to drink?

I guess I'm not real clear on the riddle

[chicken10der]

[ QUOTE ]

Is only one hatch's water poisoned?
Is midnight within 3 hours?
Does higher-numbered mean, for example, if 3 is poisoned you must drink from 4, 5, or 6?
After the drink swap, can they go back to hatches to drink?

I guess I'm not real clear on the riddle

[/ QUOTE ]

They are all poisoned.
How long until midnight has no effect on the solution (small hint), but they both know what time it is at all times.
Yes, if you drink from 3, you need to drink from 4, 5, or 6 within 3 hours to be cured. Once you are poisoned, taking one drink from a higher-numbered hatch will cure you and not just reset the 3-hour countdown. (important!)
After they swap bottles and drink, they can do whatever they think it takes to stay alive.

[ziggydonks]

can they use physical force in any way?

[tuq]

10der,

Jack is an Asian
Asians are smarter than everyone else
He somehow tricked this Benjamin Linus character into drinking from the wrong bottle
amirite?

[chicken10der]

No physical force - in fact, they never touch each other. The only interaction they have after their meeting in the hatch is the drinking from the bottles at the crash site.

There is no trickery with the bottles. Jack drinks from the bottle that Ben filled, and Ben drinks from the bottle that Jack filled.

[Fatt Albert]

does he have to fill it from one of the hatches? he could just fill it with gasoline from the plane.

[roy_miami]

[ QUOTE ]
this is very wrong, it took me about 2.5 hours and a few hints og get it

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes he is wrong. I got it in 10 minutes while playing a game of poker. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]