PDA

View Full Version : It's fun fun puzzle time!



Drakkenmensch
24th August 2005, 12:06 AM
A little logic puzzle submitted by Task in another thread gave me the idea of a thread where a riddle or puzzle is asked, and once solved, another riddle can be asked, so here goes.

Another rickety bridge puzzle!

You come to a bridge, carrying with you a wolf, a sheep and a cabbage. The bridge is long and unstable, so you can only carry ONE of those three across at a time (it's one of those riddle bridges that seem to exist only to daunt the mind and flex your cerebral muscles). There is no limit to how many times you can go across, BUT:

- you cannot CALL the sheep or wolf across. They are bloody cowards who will refuse to walk across unless you have them in your arms.

- you cannot roll, throw, toss, fling, catapult, trebuchet, fedex or otherwise teleport the cabbage across. You have to carry it across. Same goes for the wolf and the sheep.

- If left alone on either side of the bridge while you go to the other side, the wolf will eat the sheep. Left alone, the sheep will eat the cabbage. The wolf cares nothing for greens and thus the cabbage is safe from the wolf.

HOW can you get ALL THREE SAFELY ACROSS?

*starts timer watch*

Rouni Kenshin#1
24th August 2005, 12:09 AM
I will slowly walk across the bridge holding the cabbage so the sheep follows and because the sheep is moving the wold will follow the sheep and all three will get across.


that might be a strech but it might be the answer

Drakkenmensch
24th August 2005, 12:12 AM
*BZZZZZZZZT*

Sorry, but the rules SPECIFY that they are both bloody cowards, and since you left the wolf and sheep together, you will return to find a smiling wolf licking his lips and the rib bones of a very dead sheep. Don't give up though!

eLhabib
24th August 2005, 12:25 AM
aw cmon that's too easy. first you carry over the sheep. the wolv and the cabbage stay. then you come back and take the cabbage across. on your way back you take the sheep with you again. then you take the wolf across and come back barehanded to take the sheep across again.

Drakkenmensch
24th August 2005, 12:27 AM
DING DING DING! We have anotha WINNAH!

*hands eLhabib a big stuffed panda bear*

Now it's your turn to stump and dazzle us with a puzzle ;)

eLhabib
24th August 2005, 12:29 AM
no krusty-brand imitation champaign this time? :wink:

I'll have to search for a while for a new puzzle tho, I'm not really big on those... and since I am gonna be on vacation with my girl on an island starting tomorrow, don't expect one before september 5th... sorry!

Drakkenmensch
24th August 2005, 12:39 AM
Any takers to suggest a puzzle then?

Rouni Kenshin#1
24th August 2005, 12:51 AM
this one is kind of easy.


what walks on 4 legs in the morning, 2 legs in the afternoon, and 3 legs at night?


I bet that the next post will get it.

Task
24th August 2005, 12:52 AM
Sure, I've got lots.

* * *
* * *
* * *

With 4 straight lines, connected end-to-end (you know, the old "without lifting the pencil from the page" limitation), connect all the dots.

We had a thread like this going a little while back.
http://www.wipeoutzone.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1887&highlight=puzzles

Actually, I never did solve that last riddle. I should go back to look at it...

eLhabib
24th August 2005, 01:56 AM
I know that one, but how to draw it here?

Rouni Kenshin#1
24th August 2005, 02:28 AM
shall you pay attention to my riddle?

and i never could do the dot thing.

eLhabib
24th August 2005, 03:09 AM
there you go: http://www.wipeoutzone.com/user_files.php?user_id=913 riddle solved.

oh and rouni, that's the sphinxs, riddle, and it's metaphoric, so not really a logical one.

it describes the lifecircle of a man, crawling on all 4 as a baby (morning), walking upright as an adult (afternoon), and walking with a cane in old age (night - should be evening actually).

Drakkenmensch
24th August 2005, 03:11 AM
Rouni: Man, who crawls as a baby (morning of his life) walks on two legs as an adult (noon of life) and uses a cane (sunset of life)

Task:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v730/GallagherKnight/puzzle.jpg

Keep them coming ;)

Rouni Kenshin#1
24th August 2005, 11:21 PM
Correct, :D

try this one.

sometimes i'm short and some times i'm tall i'm you see me every second of every day and I am now seen 5 times. what am i.

Drakkenmensch
24th August 2005, 11:32 PM
You are the letter "i"?

Rouni Kenshin#1
24th August 2005, 11:42 PM
I don't make hard ones.

try to stump me.

Task
25th August 2005, 12:40 AM
Warning: Harder than it looks.

You're in a game show. The host offers you three doors to choose from. There's a brand-new car behind one of them, and sheep behind the other two doors.
You pick a door. The host then opens one of the doors you haven't chosen and shows you a sheep. If you want, you are now allowed to change your choice. Should you choose the one remaining door? Or should you stick with your current choice? Or does it even matter?

Rouni Kenshin#1
25th August 2005, 12:59 AM
change doors.

Drakkenmensch
25th August 2005, 01:21 AM
This is a complex one.

If the choice is truly random and even the host doesn't know where the car is, changing or not has no bearing on the 50-50 choice you're stuck with.

If the host really WANTS you to win, he may be trying to tell you "you've picked wrong, change while you can."

If the host really wants you to LOSE and the show is rigged as such, it makes no difference.

The only case where the choice to change might make a significant difference then is if the host wants you to win, but you don't know that, so let's review:

Changing door when asked offers the following odds to win:

Host wants you to lose: 0% to win
Host has an honest show: 50% to win
Host wants you to win: 100% to win

So when asked if you want to change, you should always say yes.

Task
25th August 2005, 07:29 AM
You're both right, but I'm not sure you're right for the right reason.
Guessing the correct answer is not the point of the question. 8 )

As usual, the game show host has very little to do with the actual show, and has no idea if you're going to win or lose. The producers tell him what to do, he does it.
This isn't a trick question, it's quite straightforward.

Can you prove that changing doors is the right thing to do?

element42
25th August 2005, 08:25 AM
yes. i'll try to keep it simple. :wink:

let's say you pick a door with a sheep behind. The host opens a door with the other sheep behind. so if you stay here, you lose, and if you change, you win, because the only door let must have the car.
now, if you pick a door with the car behind it, if you change, you lose.

HOWEVER... there are two sheepy doors, and only one car door. so there is a 2/3 chance that, after choosing your initial door, swapping will win you the car, and a 1/3 chance that swapping will win you a sheep.

problem with this puzzle is that it presupposes that the host will open the door with a sheep behind it. If the host just picks a door but doesn't open it then asks if you want to swap, then the odds remain at the common sense level, i.e. 50/50.

element42
25th August 2005, 08:32 AM
alright, then: You have twelve identical-looking balls, except one is a different weight to the others - it could be heavier or lighter. You have a balance which you are allowed to use 3 times only. You must discover which ball is the odd one out and whether it is heavier or lighter. Go! :twisted:

Drakkenmensch
25th August 2005, 02:02 PM
I don't think this problem can be solved if you don't know whether it's heavier OR lighter. Assuming it's heavier, though, there's a solution I can think of:

Put six balls on every side of the balance. Discard the six balls on the lighter side.

Put three of the remaining balls on each side. Discard the three on the lighter side.

Balance two random balls of the remaining three. If you picked the heavier in those two, you know which one it is from the measuring. If the two balls are of equal weight, the third one is the odd ball out.

element42
25th August 2005, 02:16 PM
it is solvable. really!

piranha wiper
25th August 2005, 03:56 PM
this one is kind of easy.


what walks on 4 legs in the morning, 2 legs in the afternoon, and 3 legs at night?


I bet that the next post will get it.
isnt that some one who woke up with a hangover from a night out and then got over it then went for another drink??

Task
25th August 2005, 05:34 PM
alright, then: You have twelve identical-looking balls, except one is a different weight to the others - it could be heavier or lighter. You have a balance which you are allowed to use 3 times only. You must discover which ball is the odd one out and whether it is heavier or lighter. Go! :twisted:



I had heard of this problem, but I've never actually tackled it before.
Okay, now's as good a time as any...

(time passes)

Got it. It took a bit to figure out the 8-ball case, but it was just a matter of using ALL the information available. Good one!

piranha wiper
25th August 2005, 05:49 PM
put 6 balls on one side and the other six on the other side and then theres 1 go, er then whic ever side goes up or has the lighter or heavier ball in it then swap the balls about some how... and......stuff :?

Rouni Kenshin#1
26th August 2005, 12:10 AM
Ok, hows this one?

A guy is found dead in full diving gear in the niddle of a wildefire in Navada. How did he die?

sooo easy i have to thiink of some hard ones.

piranha wiper
26th August 2005, 01:27 AM
:D heard it before my mate told me it after i showed him this thread its really daft, he got scooped into a big plane to put out fires and then the water was released and he fell out and died

Rouni Kenshin#1
26th August 2005, 02:49 AM
Told you it was easy.


the classic bucket full of water death.

Drakkenmensch
26th August 2005, 03:25 AM
You guys should know that the "diver through the water bomber plane" death is impossible for the simple reason that the water intake pipes of those planes are no more than two inches wide at MOST. Even if the body was shredded to goo and sucked in, the breathing apparatus could not be fitted inside.

Besides - why would a plane like that pick up water just to drop it on an empty plain without a thick brush fire raging in it?

syckls
27th August 2005, 12:12 AM
It was a forest fire. Forest = not plain.

A man took a taxi so as to not be late for an event he was very much looking forward to, but he carelessly failed to pay the driver a sufficient tip. The driver said something to the man, and his evening was ruined. The driver did not insult the man or use obscenities. What did the driver say?

piranha wiper
27th August 2005, 03:07 PM
"IVE TAKEN YOU TO THE WRONG PLACE!! AAAHAHAR HAR HAAAR HAR...HAR" *that was an evil pirate type laugh

syckls
28th August 2005, 05:37 AM
Good guess, and that would work, though that's not exactly what it is. I hate it when that happens...

Rouni Kenshin#1
28th August 2005, 02:56 PM
I forgot your lugeage.


I CANT SPELL.

syckls
28th August 2005, 05:14 PM
No. The cab driver took the man to the right place and did perfectly fine until he felt offended at the extremely marginal tip. What the driver told the man is specific to the place he is going to, and to be even more precise, what is going to happen at that place.

Drakkenmensch
28th August 2005, 11:12 PM
"My brother is the chef at this restaurant. I'll call him on his cell to ask him to pee in your soup."

Lance
29th August 2005, 02:26 AM
.
i don't have change for a hundred.

---------

SO LEARN HOW
.

xEik
29th August 2005, 09:30 AM
Darth Vader is Luke's father. ;)
Assuming it's 1980 and he was going to see 'The Empire Strikes Back'.

element42
29th August 2005, 09:38 AM
I guess the 12 balls problem was too hard :wink: well done Task. here's the answer:
Call the balls a to l. weigh a-d against e-h.
(1) they balance. then odd ball is in i-l. weigh f-h against i-k. [thanks drak]
(i) they balance. odd ball is k, weigh it against any other ball to find weight.
(ii)f-h is heavier. so odd ball is light. weigh i against j if it balances the odd one is k otherwise the lighter one is the odd one.
(iii)f-h is lighter. Similar procedure to above.
(2) a-d is lighter. weigh a,b,e against c,f,i
(i) they balance. so the odd ball is d (which would be lighter) or g or h (heavier). So weigh g against h - if they balance, the odd one is d, or else the heavier is the odd one.
(ii) a,b,e are light. so the odd ball is a or b (lighter) or f (heavy). weigh a against b - if they balance, f is odd else the lighter one is odd.
(iii) a,b,e are heavy. so the odd ball is e (heavy) or c (light). weigh e against i - if they balance, it's c, else e.
(3) e-h is lighter. same steps as (2). phew!

Drakkenmensch
29th August 2005, 03:06 PM
Call the balls a to l. weigh a-d against e-h.
(1) they balance. then odd ball is in i-k. weigh f-h against i-j.

I think you meant "the odd ball is in i-l" and "weigh f-h against i-k"

it was a VERY tough puzzle indeed. I was stuck trying to figure out what to do after the first step when the two groups of four balls were uneven in weight, as my best attempt to solve it left me with a scenario where I would always find the odd ball but had a one in twelve chance of not figuring if the odd ball was light or heavy.

EDIT: Forgot we need a new puzzle!

Three guys go to a hotel and decide to share a room. It's 30$, so they each contribute 10. Later on, the manager tells the counter guy that today there was a 5$ off special and forgot to tell him earlier, so he hands the counter guy 5$ to bring to the three guys. On his way up, he tries to figure how to split 5$ among three guys so he just stuffs two bucks in his pocket and gives one to each of the three guys.

So to resume: Each guy got a dollar back, so they spent 9$ each.
9$ x 3 guys = 27$
Add to that the 2 dollars the crooked counter guy swiped:
27$ + 2$ = 29$

WHERE IS THE MISSING DOLLAR?

element42
29th August 2005, 04:05 PM
[thanks for the correction, i've changed it now :) ]
The total price of the meal (edit: or ROOM, or whatever...) was $25, plus the $2 that was swiped will have to be paid for.
$25 + $2 = $27, which is what the men payed.

Task
29th August 2005, 04:35 PM
The meal? What meal? I think you mean "the room" and you've been thinking of something else that involved a meal. 8 )

piranha wiper
29th August 2005, 06:36 PM
there is no missing dollar, its one of those daft things i think we called it "maths" back in that really scary called "school" *shudders* its sort of the same thing saying youve got 11 fingers

element42
29th August 2005, 07:41 PM
The meal? What meal? d'oh! :oops:

Drakkenmensch
30th August 2005, 01:31 AM
Correct you are gentlemen, it's one of those math paradoxes through the likes of which you can prove that 1=2, so trying to find the missing dollar was a dead end in disguise ;)

syckls
30th August 2005, 02:08 AM
xEik is correct. The cab driver was giving the man a huge plot spoiler.