Puzzles & Paradoxes

Started by Bardock426 pages

Damn VVD...knows everything.....

Interesting thread so far the only puzzle I succesfully figured out was the first one, oh and how did the german end up with the fish?!?!

But how does this relate to philosophy?

all about mind power... People who would do logical puzzles tend to be the ones who want to think....

None of the 3 in question can say "I am a knave",(a liar can't say he is a liar) so B must have been lying. This means that B is a knave and C is a knight

Four prisoners are arrested for a crime, but the jail is full and the jailer has nowhere to put them. He eventually comes up with the solution of giving them a puzzle so if they succeed they can go free but if they fail they are executed.

The jailer puts three of the men sitting in a line. The fourth man is put behind a screen (or in a separate room). He gives all four men party hats. The jailer explains that there are two red and two blue hats. The prisoners can see the hats in front of them but not on themselves or behind. The fourth man behind the screen can' t see or be seen by any other prisoner. No communication between the men is allowed.

If any prisoner can figure out and say (out loud) to the jailer what colour hat they have on their head all four prisoners go free. The puzzle is to find how the prisoners can escape.

If B and A are wearing the same colour hat, C can call out immediately that he must be wearing a different colour.

If C doesn't call out after a few seconds, it must be because B and A have different colours. Therefore, B, who can see A's colour, knows he is wearing the other colour and calls that out.

C sees that A and B have the same color, than he can infer that he has the other color.

If C doesn´t answer, B and A can infer that they have different colors, and with this information B can conclude that he is wearing the color A is not wearing.

Well done to the both of you.

Once upon a time a farmer went to market and purchased a fox, a goose, and a bag of beans. On his way home, the farmer came to the bank of a river and hired a boat. But in crossing the river by boat, the farmer could carry only himself and a single one of his purchases: the fox, the goose, or the bag of beans.

If left alone, the fox would eat the goose, and the goose would eat the beans.

The farmer' s challenge was to carry himself and his purchases to the far bank of the river, leaving each purchase intact. How did he do it?

He takes the goose first, as the fox will not eat the beans?

Originally posted by Storm
Well done to the both of you.

Once upon a time a farmer went to market and purchased a fox, a goose, and a bag of beans. On his way home, the farmer came to the bank of a river and hired a boat. But in crossing the river by boat, the farmer could carry only himself and a single one of his purchases: the fox, the goose, or the bag of beans.

If left alone, the fox would eat the goose, and the goose would eat the beans.

The farmer' s challenge was to carry himself and his purchases to the far bank of the river, leaving each purchase intact. How did he do it?


I'll assume the farmer is in side A and he needs to get to side B.
The farmer takes the goose to side B, he then goes back to side A picks up the bag of beans goes to side B once more again, leaves the beans but takes the goose back to side A. He leaves the goose in side A but takes the fox to side B. At last he goes back to side A picks up the goose and finally crosses the damn river for good.

Its a sack of corn not beans. Well thats how I know it.

First he takes the Bird,

He Goes back for the fox

He leaves the Fox and takes the Goose back with him

He leaves the Goose and goes with the corn and leaves the corn and the Fox together.

He returns with the Goose

He takes the goose, then the beans, the he go back with the goose, and then he bring the fox, and finally he takes the goose again.

Never noted... there are two ways to do that. You take the goose first, then you can either choose to take the beans, or the fox just before you take the goose back.

He should get his wife to carry one of them.

(most people in the UK should get that one)

lol is that from the office.

He carries the fox across and makes the goose swim beside him (on a leash). He leaves the fox alone on the opposite bank and returns with the beans.
Or
He takes the goose across, goes back for the fox, takes it across, then takes the goose back. He then takes the beans to the fox and goes back for the goose.

BTW for the first puzzle alot of people were assuming that A said anything about his status at all.

Zod (possibly now saldy missed) was correct.

i dont know if its cuz im tired or what but woah that just doesnt register ín my noggin 😐

Originally posted by WrathfulDwarf
Observation: A knave will never call himself a Knave for he then is telling the truth.

Answer: No inhabitant can say that he is a knave. Therefore B's statement must be untrue, so he is a knave, and C's statement must be true, so he is a knight.

grrr i was hoping id get to say it!!! lol

The fox, goose and bag of beans puzzle was correctly solved by all of you.

Burning rope

There are two lengths of rope. Each one can burn in exactly one hour. They are not necessarily of the same length or width as each other. They also are not of uniform width (may be wider in middle than on the end), thus burning half of the rope is not necessarily 1/2 hour.

By burning the ropes, how do you measure exactly 45 minutes worth of time?