Logic Puzzles

Horatio got it. The idea is to say something that will change depending on their actions. Now you'll spend the rest of your life being dragged from a lion's den to a cliff and back down again. Much better :)

Shirley, if you got the brother that lies, he'd lie about what the other brother would say, so you'd be given the wrong direction?

Yup. Liar tells you the other brother would say the wrong way (which is a lie). Non-liar tells you the other brother would say the wrong way (which is true). Thus, you go the other way. And then get stabbed for asking a tricky question.

Oh yeah! Thanks for spelling it out.

I'd check Google maps.

Re plane thing, when you know the answer and you know why, it's hilarious to watch people argue about it. #smug

Considering this is a cycling forum, a lot of people don't understand how wheels work.

Ed understands everything so we don't have to.

(not a trick in wording etc)

The tribe.

You get captured by a sadistic tribe. They tell you to make a statement, a prediction about the near future, if it comes true they will feed you to the lions, if it's false they'll throw you off a cliff. What do you say?

"You won't feed me to the lions."

he he what a fun thread. Lots of fail on the monty hall problem by the way. 1/2 never comes into it at all. But even Erdos got it wrong so don't worry. I've got quite a fun book that goes really deep into it if anyone wants to borrow it.

it's awful really isn't it? The ill thought out nature of the question. It's almost as if it's some kind of logic puzzle and not a real life scenario at all.

he he what a fun thread. Lots of fail on the monty hall problem by the way. 1/2 never comes into it at all. But even Erdos got it wrong so don't worry. I've got quite a fun book that goes really deep into it if anyone wants to borrow it.

Ah, 2/3 not 1/2. Better odds!

Is this because you're essentially picking two doors? One of the ones you pick will always be wrong because there is only one correct door, but one will potentially be right. Just because the host picks an incorrect door and you pick the potentially correct door doesn't change the odds, you're still picking two doors out of three.

So when you make the first choice the chances are 1 in 3, then they rise to 2 in 3 once the host has already shown you an incorrect door?

it's awful really isn't it? The ill thought out nature of the question. It's almost as if it's some kind of logic puzzle and not a real life scenario at all.

It's a logical puzzle how logic can be so devoid of any sense of reality. :)

Guys, keep posting puzzles - we can trap Jeez here in a deep funk of arsedribbling pedantry and smug self-regard, and the rest of the forum can stay unpolluted. Do us proud.

Pull out one, hand it to your captor and say you choose the unseen one in the hat.

Or check Google maps.

You pull one out, quickly eat it, and as the only one left in the hat says 'death', the one you ate must have said 'life'.

Ha, I really like Oli's answer.

I'd just take out both so the executor(s) would (hopefully) see they both see death.

That wouldn't work because they'd make you re-do the test and you'd only end up with a 50/50 chance of living. The trick is to make them read one that says "death" without them seeing the other one that you have chosen (which will also say death, but they will assume it says life because there should only be one of each).

Word. I agree my answer is neither very good, nor as good as Oliver's, but to get all Jeez on this shit: "How will you avoid certain death?" I think my option does this at least (assuming the see both pieces of paper). Death is no longer certain, but it's certainly still a possibility.

Death is unavoidable, no matter what you do, on religious paintings and cult symbology had made him a reluctant celebrity in the art world, and last year Langdon's visibility had increased a hundred-fold after his involvement in a widely publicized incident at the Vatican. Since then, the stream of self-important historians and art buffs arriving at his door had seemed never-ending.

"If you would be so kind," Langdon said, doing his best to remain polite, "could you take the man's name and number, and tell him I'll try to call him before I leave Paris on Tuesday? Thank you." He hung up before the concierge could protest.

Sitting up now, Langdon frowned at his bedside Guest Relations Handbook, whose cover boasted: SLEEP LIKE A BABY IN THE CITY OF LIGHTS. SLUMBER AT THE PARIS RITZ.

He turned and gazed tiredly into the full-length mirror across the room. The man staring back at him was a stranger--tousled and weary.

You need a vacation, Robert.

The past year had taken a heavy toll on him, but he didn't appreciate seeing proof in the mirror. His usually sharp blue eyes looked hazy and drawn tonight. A dark stubble was shrouding his strong jaw and dimpled chin. Around his temples, the gray highlights were advancing, making their way deeper into his thicket of coarse black hair. Although his female colleagues insisted the gray only accentuated his bookish appeal, Langdon knew better.

If Boston Magazine could see me now.

Last month, much to Langdon's embarrassment, Boston Magazine had listed him as one of that city's top ten most intriguing people--a dubious honor that made him the brunt of endless ribbing by his Harvard colleagues. Tonight, three thousand miles from home, the accolade had resurfaced to haunt him at the lecture he had given.

"Ladies and gentlemen . . ." the hostess had announced to a full-house at The American University of Paris's Pavillon Dauphine, "Our guest tonight needs no introduction. He is the author of numerous books: The Symbology of Secret Sects, The Art of the Illuminati, The Lost Language of Ideograms, and when I say he wrote the book, death comes to us all at some point, what is a near future anyway?

Dennis Leary wow good in that film

I'm presuming Horatio, Ardicus, Oli et al are correct with the LIFE /DEATH paper one? I often use the 'one always lies' one on my students (for teaching *would *), it's great, it lasts the whole lesson and we usually end up trying to reenact it, disastrously, mostly because the one who always tells the truth keeps forgetting to tell the lie of the other one.

A French student taught me this one once, fairly easy I hope:

Four prisoners are buried up to their necks in the sand, one behind the other, all looking Northwards. The one at the front is separated from the others by a wall so the other three cannot see him. The guard tells the prisoners that he's going to place two black caps and two white caps on the four prisoners in random order and then gives the challenge.

"In 30 seconds' time one of you must say what colour cap you are wearing otherwise I will bury all four of you."

The only words they are allowed to say are "My cap is..."

Supposing the caps were placed in alternate order who is the only person who can say definitively at the end of the 30 seconds what colour their cap is?

if only one of them must say it correctly then it would be the last one to speak who would definitely get it right as he would have heard the others give their guesses and if it gets to him without anyone guessing correctly then he would know that all of the other guesses were wrong so he just has to tally up the opposite answers and say what colour his cap is based on that.