rao@utcsstat.UUCP (Eli Posner) (01/23/84)
[]
This is stolen directly from The Toronto Star:
The Englishman lives in the red house. The Spaniard owns a dog.
Coffe is consumed in the green house.The Ukrainian drinks tea.
The green house is to the right of the ivory house. The cigar
smoker owns snails. Pipes are smoked in the yellow house. Milk is drunk
in the middle house. The Norwegian lives in the first house on the left.
The man who smokes filter cigarettes lives next to the man with
the fox. Pipes are smoked in the house next to the house where the horses
are kept. The menthol cigarette smoker drinks orange juice.
The Japanese smokes seaweed. And the Norwegian lives next to the blue
house.
Okay . . . who drinks water ? And who owns the zebra ?
I'll post answer in a week or two.
Send replies to:
--
Eli Posner
{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!utcsstat!raontt@dciem.UUCP (Mark Brader) (01/23/84)
Eri Posner may have stolen it directly from the Toronto Star, but the person who sent it to the Star stole it directly from somewhere else. I first saw it about 15 years ago. (I don't know the author, though.) Those of you who are within range of the Star may find the answer (but not the solution) in yesterday (Sunday)'s Enigma Column. Mark Brader
rao@utcsstat.UUCP (Eli Posner) (01/29/84)
[]
Just to refresh:
The Englishman lives in the red house. The Spaniard owns a dog.
Coffe is consumed in the green house.The Ukrainian drinks tea.
The green house is to the right of the ivory house. The cigar
smoker owns snails. Pipes are smoked in the yellow house. Milk is drunk
in the middle house. The Norwegian lives in the first house on the left.
The man who smokes filter cigarettes lives next to the man with
the fox. Pipes are smoked in the house next to the house where the horses
are kept. The menthol cigarette smoker drinks orange juice.
The Japanese smokes seaweed. And the Norwegian lives next to the blue
house.
Okay . . . who drinks water ? And who owns the zebra ?
Here's the answer you've all been waiting for:
1 2 3 4 5
Norwegian Ukrainian Englishman Spaniard Japanese
yellow blue red ivory green
*WATER* tea milk orange juice coffee
fox horses snails dog *ZEBRA*
pipe filter cigars menthol seaweed
--
Eli Posner
{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!utcsstat!rao5125kaf@hound.UUCP (K.FRIEDMAN) (02/09/86)
You are staggering down a road ready to give up on life
when you come to a fork in the road where there are two people
standing. You have heard about this place. One of the roads goes
straight to a hospital and the other to a alligator-infested
swamp. One of these people always tells the truth and the other
always lies. You can ask either person one question and only
one question in order to determine which way the hospital is.
What would be the question and to whom would you ask it?
How would this question help you to determine which way to go?
** GOOD LUCK **
Barry Friedman
ihnp4!houxm!hound!5125kafjs2j@mhuxt.UUCP (sonntag) (02/11/86)
> You have heard about this place. One of the roads goes > straight to a hospital and the other to a alligator-infested > swamp. One of these people always tells the truth and the other > always lies. You can ask either person one question and only > one question in order to determine which way the hospital is. > What would be the question and to whom would you ask it? > How would this question help you to determine which way to go? Pick one of the people there at random and ask them: "If I asked the other guy which road goes to the hospital, what would he tell me?" Both the liar and the truth-teller will tell you the wrong way. -- Jeff Sonntag ihnp4!mhuxt!js2j
evan@pedsgo.UUCP (Evan Marcus) (02/12/86)
Organization : Concurrent Computer Corp. (a P-E subsidiary), Tinton Falls, NJ Keywords: In article <1644@hound.UUCP> 5125kaf@hound.UUCP (K.FRIEDMAN) writes: > > You are staggering down a road ready to give up on life >when you come to a fork in the road where there are two people >standing. You have heard about this place. One of the roads goes >straight to a hospital and the other to a alligator-infested >swamp. One of these people always tells the truth and the other >always lies. You can ask either person one question and only >one question in order to determine which way the hospital is. >What would be the question and to whom would you ask it? >How would this question help you to determine which way to go? > > Barry Friedman > ihnp4!houxm!hound!5125kaf Since you don't the people, you can't assume which person is which, therefore you must be able to ask either person one question, and get the same answer to it. You ask 'If I ask the other person which way the hospital is, what would he tell me?' The honest person will will tell you the road that leads to the swamp, since that is what the liar would say. The liar will tell you the swamp, because that is NOT what the honest person would say. Then you go the other way to the hospital. THIS QUESTION AND ITS VARIATIONS HAVE BEEN POSTED SO MANY TIMES ALREADY!!!! -- NAME: Evan L. Marcus UUCP: ...{hjuxa!vax135}!petsd!pedsgd!pedsgo!evan USnail: CONCURRENT Computer Corporation (a Perkin-Elmer Company) M/S 308, 106 Apple St., Tinton Falls, NJ 07724 MA BELL:(201) 758-7357 DISCLAIMER: No, not me, uh-uh...I didn't write this. No sirree. QUOTE: A wop bop a lu lah a wop bam boom.
ice@trwrba.UUCP (Douglas L. Ice) (02/12/86)
In article <1644@hound.UUCP> 5125kaf@hound.UUCP (K.FRIEDMAN) writes: > > You are staggering down a road ready to give up on life >when you come to a fork in the road where there are two people >standing. You have heard about this place. One of the roads goes >straight to a hospital and the other to a alligator-infested >swamp. One of these people always tells the truth and the other >always lies. You can ask either person one question and only >one question in order to determine which way the hospital is. >What would be the question and to whom would you ask it? >How would this question help you to determine which way to go? > Ask either person, "If I were to ask the other person which way to the hospital, what would they say?" Then go on the other path. If you asked a truthteller, he would truthfully reply that the liar would provide the wrong path. If you asked a liar, he would falsely reply that the truthteller would provide the wrong path. By going the other way, you reach the hospital. Another method to use (in case one of the two takes a coffee break, and you don't know which) is to ask the person, "If I were to ask you the way to the hospital, what would you say?" If you ask a truthteller, he will truthfully reply that he would provide the correct path if you were to ask him. If you ask a liar, he would lie about what he would say to you (which would have been the incorrect path), thus providing the correct path. These and many MANY other logic puzzles can be found in Raymond Smullyan's clever book, "What is the Name of This Book" (available in paperback from Prentice-Hall). He calls truthtellers "knights", and liars "knaves". He also introduces "normals", who cannot be depended on to tell truth or lies. Smullyan also has written several other puzzle books, the titles of which I cannot provide. ------------------------------------------------------------------- --- Doug Ice
verma@ucla-cs.UUCP (02/13/86)
In article <1644@hound.UUCP> 5125kaf@hound.UUCP (K.FRIEDMAN) writes: > >always lies. You can ask either person one question and only >one question in order to determine which way the hospital is. >What would be the question and to whom would you ask it? ^^^^^^^ >How would this question help you to determine which way to go? If I get to choose, then I will ask the truth teller which way to go. But if I dont know which one he is, then I would ask either one the question (pointing to either road): Is the truth value of the statement: 'That is the way to the hospital' the same as the truth value to the statement 'You never lie' ? If he says yes then the road I am pointing to must be the road to the hospital. There are four cases: 1) It IS the road, and he never lies the two statements are both thue, thus since he never lies, he will say YES 2) It IS the road, but he always lies the two statements do not have the same truth value, thus the answer is no, but he always lies, so he says YES 3) It IS NOT the road, and he never lies again the two are not the same, but he is the truth teller, thus he must say NO 4) It IS NOT the road, and he always lies the two statements are both false, but since he always lies he must say NO No flame intended, but hasen't everyone seen this puzzle in 2nd grade? no signature...
showard@udenva.UUCP (Mr. Blore) (02/15/86)
In article <1644@hound.UUCP> 5125kaf@hound.UUCP (K.FRIEDMAN) writes: > > You are staggering down a road ready to give up on life >when you come to a fork in the road where there are two people >standing. You have heard about this place. One of the roads goes >straight to a hospital and the other to a alligator-infested >swamp. One of these people always tells the truth and the other >always lies. You can ask either person one question and only >one question in order to determine which way the hospital is. >What would be the question and to whom would you ask it? >How would this question help you to determine which way to go? > > ** GOOD LUCK ** > > > > Barry Friedman > ihnp4!houxm!hound!5125kaf No questions need be asked. Simply injure or poison one or both of the people at the crossroads and follow him or them to the hospital. BTW, if I'm ready to give up on life why do I want a hospital? "I'd like to be under the sea in an octopus's garden in the shade." -- Mr. Blore, the DJ who would not die {hplabs, seismo}!hao!udenva!showard or {boulder, cires, ucbvax!nbires, cisden}!udenva!showard
king@kestrel.ARPA (Dick King) (02/25/86)
From: js2j@mhuxt.UUCP (sonntag) Newsgroups: net.puzzle Date: 11 Feb 86 18:20:46 GMT > You have heard about this place. One of the roads goes > straight to a hospital and the other to a alligator-infested > swamp. One of these people always tells the truth and the other > always lies. You can ask either person one question and only > one question in order to determine which way the hospital is. > What would be the question and to whom would you ask it? > How would this question help you to determine which way to go? I can do it with no questions, and this will defeat the "deceptive liar" (See, for example, one of Gardner's books on mathematical recreations) who tries to figure out what use I intend to make of the information he gives me and attempts to mislead me. Punch the guy hard enough to injure him and see which way he goes. -dick (:->)
gwyn@brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn ) (03/03/86)
In article <5161@kestrel.ARPA> king@kestrel.ARPA (Dick King) writes: >Punch the guy hard enough to injure him and see which way he goes. That is about as good as anything, once one starts getting into subtleties. In particular, if you were to actually encounter a couple of natives in an environment like that, you'd not only have no idea how many of them were truth- tellers, or whether all natives were either truth-tellers or liars; in practice you wouldn't be able to count on the natives being ideal logicians either. It's better to not get into situations like this in the first place..