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riddles
Message de tinchodoc posté le 27-10-2006 à 21:32:16 (S | E | F | I)
Hello,
I propose you a little riddle:
An explorer is seized by a tribu. The chieftain decides the man must die. The chief was a very logical man and so he decides to give a choice to the explorer. He could pronounce a sentence. If this sentence was true, it would be thrown from the precipice. If it was wrong, it would be thrown to lions.
So, what sentence will the smart explorer have to pronounce to force the chief to leave him go?
Good luck!
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Modifié par bridg le 27-10-2006 21:33
English only please
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Modifié par tinchodoc le 01-11-2006 14:05
Message de tinchodoc posté le 27-10-2006 à 21:32:16 (S | E | F | I)
Hello,
I propose you a little riddle:
An explorer is seized by a tribu. The chieftain decides the man must die. The chief was a very logical man and so he decides to give a choice to the explorer. He could pronounce a sentence. If this sentence was true, it would be thrown from the precipice. If it was wrong, it would be thrown to lions.
So, what sentence will the smart explorer have to pronounce to force the chief to leave him go?
Good luck!
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Modifié par bridg le 27-10-2006 21:33
English only please
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Modifié par tinchodoc le 01-11-2006 14:05
Réponse: Final decision: riddle de mp27, postée le 28-10-2006 à 00:22:33 (S | E)
This seems to be extremely awkward, tinchodoc!
It's so tricky... it doesn't seem to be possible for the explorer to survive!
but he must survive and feel safe before midnight... latest tomorrow (lunchtime???)
I am mixing "false and true" in my head and, so far, I just wanted to let you know that, although my suggestions are progressing (hmmm....) they are still in a state of ... confusion.
Réponse: Final decision: riddle de tinchodoc, postée le 28-10-2006 à 00:46:13 (S | E)
I reassure you, there's always a solution, and in that case the smart explorer arrives to survive (because he's very smart
keep trying!
Réponse: Final decision: riddle de mp27, postée le 28-10-2006 à 01:00:46 (S | E)
I will...
It's up to me to be smart... and as you see, it's taking me a long time!
We must find a way round, in other words, the sentence must be neither true nor false. Ok in theory, but.... what can the explorer say???
I'll sleep on it
Réponse: Final decision: riddle de fennec, postée le 28-10-2006 à 03:11:55 (S | E)
The sentence he must to pronounce that he will be thrown to the lion
If they throw him to the lion , his sentence was right so he must to be trown from precipice , if they thrown him to the pricipice his sentence was wrong so he must to hrown to lion ,
Réponse: Final decision: riddle de bridg, postée le 28-10-2006 à 06:40:26 (S | E)
Hello
I racked my brain but I didn't find.
Don't be worry I'll try again today but, could this sentence be a question? 
Réponse: Final decision: riddle de traviskidd, postée le 28-10-2006 à 09:48:58 (S | E)
Hmm ... it seems to me that the explorer needs to find a sentence that is neither true nor false.
A simple choice might be to give a sentence that expresses an opinion, and hence cannot be said to be true or false absolutely. An example of such a sentence would be "Pickles are delicious."
If the explorer takes a strictly logical view (which is what I'm sure most explorers would do when making a life-or-death decision
), he might say "This sentence is false" which is neither false (because then it would not be false, a contradiction) nor true (because then it would be false, and thus not false, the same contradiction).Of course, all this is under the assumption that the chieftain will let him go if he gives a sentence that is neither true nor false, which was not in fact made explicit by the question! (He might be killed no matter what he does!
)Réponse: Final decision: riddle de tinchodoc, postée le 28-10-2006 à 12:18:16 (S | E)
Hello everybody, and thanks for your answers...
No bridg, the sentence can't be a question. Traviskidd, I said before that the explorer arrives to survive (chieftains aren't so bad as people thinks). In any case, you were very close to the answer. And I say "were" and no "are", because someone found it: fennec!
(before bridg and traviskidd posts)As he said, the sentence is: I will be thrown to lions.
If this was true, the chieftain would contradict himself, because he said that,
for a true sentence, the explorer would be thrown from the precipice.
If the chieftain decided that the explorer must be thrown to the precipice, the sentence would be false. The chieftain would contradict himself again.
So he has no choice. He must liberate him.
Congratulations fennec.
I wish the riddle didn't find out so quickly, but games are like this...
mp27, you'll arrive a little later, but thanks anyway to participate.
See you...
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Modifié par tinchodoc le 28-10-2006 12:24
Réponse: Final decision: riddle de mp27, postée le 28-10-2006 à 15:15:24 (S | E)
Hello tinchodoc!
Yesterday evening, I was slightly walking towards the right answer.. (hmmmm, sort of...that's what I liked to believe anyway.....)
Before reading the latest posts, I was thinkling of the following sentence:
"I am lying"...
OK, you're getting lost... 
and if I say as a conclusion: whatever the truth, the statement contradicts itself and is NEITHER true NOR false,..... I haven't got very much further 
but... now, if I try to understand what fennec said, Aïe, I come back to the same conclusion as traviskidd....
Sorry, it is still a bit awkward for me to understand.
By the way, couldn't you get the "original text" of the riddle, please?
Réponse: Final decision: riddle de tinchodoc, postée le 28-10-2006 à 15:39:57 (S | E)
Hello mp27,
the original text is in Spanish, and I tried to translate it as good as possible.
I'll try to make myself clear.
The chieftain said:
You must pronounce one sentence.
If you're right, you will be thrown from the precipice.
TRUE SENTENCE --> PRECIPICE
If you're wrong, you will be thrown to lions. FALSE SENTENCE --> LIONS
The explorer concluded that the only way to be free was to pronounce a sentence neither true nor false: I will be thrown to lions.
If the chieftain said "you're rigth, I will thrown you to lions, the explorer would say a TRUE sentence. But the chieftain would contradict himself, because he said that for a true sentence, he will be thrown from the precipice.
TRUE SENTENCE --> LIONS instead of TRUE SENTENCE --> PRECIPICE (contradiction)
If the chieftain said now "you're wrong, I will thrown you from the precipice", the explorer would say a FALSE sentence. But the chieftain would contradict himself again, because he said that for a false sentence, he will be thrown to lions
FALSE SENTENCE--> PRECIPICE instead of FALSE SENTENCE --> LIONS (contradiction)
Is that explanation better?
Réponse: Final decision: riddle de traviskidd, postée le 28-10-2006 à 17:50:44 (S | E)
A very nice riddle! I think my answer was sufficient, but fennec's was clearly the best one. Congratulations fennec!
Réponse: Final decision: riddle de tinchodoc, postée le 01-11-2006 à 13:01:24 (S | E)
Hello everybody!!!
As I said before, the first riddle has been found almost immediately (fennec was a
) . I propose you today another riddle, this one about lights. Maybe some of you already know it. In that case, you can help the others members to find the answer, but please don’t break the mystery too soon. Here it is:
You are outside a dark room without windows, and there are three knobs. One of them lights the room, the others don’t. You can’t see inside the room, because the door is closed, but you know that at this moment, there is no light in the room. You have to find out which of the three knobs lights the room. There’s only one condition: you can only enter in the room once. Good luck!!
PS: You can ask me any question about the situation.
Réponse: riddles de nanette33, postée le 01-11-2006 à 16:36:56 (S | E)
Is there any warning light on the knobs?
Réponse: riddles de seb57, postée le 01-11-2006 à 17:01:21 (S | E)
I think I know the answer. Think about that: "What's happened when a bulb is on"
Réponse: riddles de tinchodoc, postée le 01-11-2006 à 17:13:16 (S | E)
Hello nanette!
Actually, you just know that there is no light in the room, so you don't need to know if there is any warning on the knobs, like "off" or "on".
Seb57 gives us a very interesting clue...
Réponse: riddles de nanette33, postée le 01-11-2006 à 17:31:04 (S | E)
I'm thinking...
Réponse: riddles de nanette33, postée le 02-11-2006 à 17:22:32 (S | E)
Hello,
I didn't yet find out... Another clue ?
Réponse: riddles de traviskidd, postée le 02-11-2006 à 21:16:10 (S | E)
I'm certainly missing something, but it seems to me that you can just enter the room once and try each knob!
Where are the knobs? And exactly how do they function?
Réponse: riddles de tinchodoc, postée le 03-11-2006 à 03:02:40 (S | E)
Hi everyone!
I'm going to give a clue to nanette33 and traviskidd:
knobs are outside the room, and you can just go inside once.
knobs serve to light the room. We can suppose that all the knobs are off.
Another detail: The room is 2 meters by 20 meters by 2 meters.
Réponse: riddles de nanette33, postée le 03-11-2006 à 09:50:19 (S | E)
But can we go out again of the room ?
Réponse: riddles de tinchodoc, postée le 03-11-2006 à 10:38:56 (S | E)
You don't need to do that nanette.
Think about seb65 said before...
Réponse: riddles de whynot95, postée le 03-11-2006 à 13:06:38 (S | E)
Hello.
Since "you know that at this moment, there is no light in the room and there’s only one condition: you can only enter in the room once.", I think you only have to change the position of each knob. In this way each knob is "on" and the room lighted. It doesn't matter which one is really lighting the room.
I'm not sure...it will be a piece of cake.
Réponse: riddles de tinchodoc, postée le 03-11-2006 à 13:28:24 (S | E)
Hello whynot95 and thanks to participate!
The aim of this riddle is not to light the room, but to find out which of the three knobs lights the room.
For you all, look at the room dimensions and ask yourself "What's happened when a bulb is on" (clue given by seb57)
Réponse: riddles de whynot95, postée le 03-11-2006 à 14:34:44 (S | E)
OK! Sorry.
Can I touch the bulb?
If I can then I turn the first and the second knob "on". After some seconds I turn "off" the second one.
When I come in :
the bulb is "off" and cold => it's the third knob
the bulb is "off" and warm => it's the second one
the bulb is "on" => it's the first one
I hope I'm right.
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Modifié par whynot95 le 03-11-2006 14:55
Réponse: riddles de tinchodoc, postée le 03-11-2006 à 15:23:27 (S | E)
Congratulations whynot!!!You're absolutely right!
The difficulty in this riddle is based in the fact that the bulb gives us another clue: heat energy. Thus, we have two ways to know if there was any light in the room.
Thanks to nanette and traviskidd to try to find out the solution, and to seb57 for his help.
Réponse: riddles de nanette33, postée le 03-11-2006 à 16:30:28 (S | E)
Whynot !You are the best !
Réponse: quiz questions de recently, postée le 11-11-2006 à 14:27:19 (S | E)
Voici 3 quiz qui me causent énormément de problemes.Il faut dire qu'ils sont difficiles à résoudre .Alors essayez!
1)Brothers and sisters have I none but this man's father is my father's son.
Who is the speaker talking about?
2)A fatherless boy is run over in a street accident and needs an emergency operation .The surgeon takes a look at the boy and says"But I can't operate on this boy, he's my son
How is this possible?
3)This is a world where you just need to guess something to get it.
what's this world?
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Modifié par lucile83 le 11-11-2006 14:34
Réponse: riddles de mp27, postée le 11-11-2006 à 14:51:34 (S | E)
Hello recently!
Premier quiz:
1)Brothers and sisters have I none but this man's father is my father's son.
-- D'après la première moitié de ta donnée,
tu as ni frère ni soeur – donc, on déduit que tu es fils unique. (= ton père/ta mère n'ont qu'un seul fils: toi)
-- D'après la fin de la donnée, tu sais que l'homme en question est---> “my father's son”,
donc, il est le fils de ton père...
Alors, cette personne ne peut être que toi!
Réponse à 1)---> The speaker is talking about himself
Les 2 autres réponses suivront... (entre la poire et le fromage!)
Réponse: riddles de traviskidd, postée le 11-11-2006 à 15:05:59 (S | E)
1. You have no siblings, so your father's son must be you. Therefore, "this man's father" is you, so "this man" must be your own son!
2. Get rid of your sexist mind; the surgeon is his mother! (And, if he were dying, I'm sure the fact that he is her son would make her more, not less, willing to operate on him!)
3. Is it this one? (I'm guessing!
)Réponse: riddles de mp27, postée le 11-11-2006 à 15:18:28 (S | E)
Hello!
Je reviens pour 2 & 3
2) We assume the boy still has his mother, but we know he is fatherless.
If the boy is the surgeon's son, why cannot he / she do the emergency operation?
Why should a surgeon refuse the operation?
What stops him/her from doing the operation?
I haven't got a clue!
If you reply: "because the boy is his/her son", we'll turn round and round......
Am I miles away from a possible answer?
Am I on the wrong track?
3) This is a world where you just need to guess something to get it. What's this world?
to get “it”---> le “it” = the world???---> the ANSWER?...
Yes but, what about if my answer is wrong?...
so, when I'm guessing, what do I get? ..... -->
a "possible" answer which might be right or wrong!
Sorry, I might be in a totally wörld!!!!!
INDISPENSABLES : 