Gambit on 27/10/2008 at 18:23
Just remembered a new one... very easy.
There was a kid playing in the street. Then suddenly he is hit by a car.
He is brought to the hospital for surgery.
But then the surgeon says:
"I can´t operate that kid. He is my son!"
The surgeon isn´t the kid´s father.
So what is the surgeon in relation to the kid ?
ANSWER
The surgeon is the kid´s mother. Ok, this would be harder to guess some years ago before women conquered all their working rights...
Nameless Voice on 28/10/2008 at 01:25
Quote Posted by Gambit
If they know that your statement is true (and they really know everything, since they´re omniscient) then you will be sentenced to drow in the water.
If they know your statement is false (and you won´t fool them, omniscient, blah blah blah...) then you will be sentenced to burn on fire.
Time to say your statement. How will you scape death ?
Say nothing.
______________________
I remember a difficult one that I could never solve. I have no idea what the answer to this is, or if there even
is an answer:
There are 100 prisoners starting a sentence. Every day, the jailer will randomly pick a prisoner and let them into a room. Inside that room there is a light which can be turned on or off, and nothing else. The prisoners are not allowed to take anything in or out of the room.
The jailer tells the prisoners that if, on the first day that every prisoner has been in the room, they ask him to let them go, he will let them all go. If they ask on any other day, he will kill them all.
The prisoners are allowed one communication session to make a plan before their sentence starts, and after that they will be in solitary confinement and unable to talk to each other.
How do the prisoners know when to ask to be let free?
Presumably he can randomly pick the same person more than once, since otherwise they'd just need to wait until the 100th day.
LancerChronics on 31/10/2008 at 11:40
obviously the solution lies in 1s and 0s, being transmitted 1 at a time, with no reference as to who sent them. Most people would probably try to think of way to count to 100 using the 1s and 0s, but with repeating visits, this becomes impossible. Instead, the solution would lie in finding a way to use the light to tell everyone else that you've been in the room <B>more than once!</B> Thus perhaps finding a way to bypass the issue of the repeat.
Let me think about it for today, maybe I will come up with something.
DDL on 31/10/2008 at 13:56
Why not simply say "first time you enter the room, turn the light on and off (or whatever combo that's easily identified). On any subsequent visits, don't do anything".
Then you just watch, and count to 100.
LancerChronics on 31/10/2008 at 14:03
they are all in solitary confinement, which generally don't consist of a window or anything. The room may not even be nearby.
Obviously the best answer is to just shut the hell up until the sentence is over, but I'll keep working on it.
DDL on 31/10/2008 at 14:37
If they can't actually see the room at any time other than when they're inside it, the whole thing is pointless, as far as I can tell.
It means the only time you can ever make any judgement about the current state of play is when you've been called, and that means you only get one guess, based on...nothing.
I mean, if they can't see the room, then how would your binary transmission solution have worked? I'm confused.
zombe on 31/10/2008 at 15:08
Quote Posted by Nameless Voice
/.../ that if,
on the first day that every prisoner has been in the room, they ask him to let them go, he will let them all go. If they ask on any other day, he will kill them all./.../
:nono:
rachel on 31/10/2008 at 15:11
Yeah the premise is flawed, iirc traditional "solitary confinement" means you're in a closed box that has all the characteristics of a coffin, only slightly larger. However for this experiment to work the guy in the room has to have some way to trigger a signal to the 99 prisoners.
I think the cells should probably be isloated but built in circle with the lighthouse in the middle so that all of the prisoners see it, like a (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon) panopticon.
Nameless Voice on 31/10/2008 at 15:17
You're right zombe, I just found the puzzle elsewhere on the Internet, and someone there commented that the part about it having to be the first day was wrong. Which might explain why I could never solve it! The proper puzzle should be:
Quote Posted by "Some website"
Each of
n prisoners will be sent alone into a certain room, infinitely often, but in some arbitrary order determined by their jailer. The prisoners have a chance to confer in advance, but once the visits begin, their only means of communication will be via a light in the room which they can turn on or off. Help them design a protocol which will ensure that some prisoner will eventually be able to deduce that everyone has visited the room.
It also has an answer which is blindingly obvious and makes me want to thump my head against the wall after reading it.
