rmariani@watnot.UUCP (Rico Mariani) (02/11/86)
THIS IS A SPOILER YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED > 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 of them: "If I were to ask you if the hospital lies to the left, what would you say?" The liars answer to the question 'does the hospital lie to the left?' would be the opposite of the truth, asking him what he would say if I asked him makes him reply the opposite of the opposite of the truth... in other words the truth. The truth tellers answer clearly gives the truth. So after asking the question you know the correct answer to the question 'Does the hospital lie to the left?' And you should act accordingly. Note: you don't know anything about who's the liar and who's not. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Alternate solution...... Ask either of them: "Did you know that they're serving free beer at the Hospital tonight?" Then follow them both to the hospital. :-) -Rico {allegra|ihnp4|linus|decvax|utzoo}!watmath!watnot!rmariani Disclaimers: I'm not responsible for all of this, my solution wasn't as elegant : The University of Waterloo doesn't care about your Hospital Plan