scabb Posted March 28, 2006 Share Posted March 28, 2006 They're all opaque, so you can't see what's in them. You know that one tub contains red jelly beans, one tub contains green jelly beans and the other contains a mixture of both. You also know that all of the tubs are incorrectly labelled. How many times do you need to reach for a jelly-bean before you know which tub is which, and why? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alien426 Posted March 28, 2006 Share Posted March 28, 2006 Only once. That is since they are all incorrectly labelled. Let's say you pick one and it's red. Then its label has to be either "mixed" or "green". if we go with "green" then the others' labels are "mixed" and "red". Since "mixed" is not true and we already picked a red one this tube contains green jelly beans. The tube that's left contains mixed colors. Oh wait. You can only take a single jelly-bean? Then it's trickier than I thought. You can't even be sure that it's not the mixed tube if you take 10 jelly beans. It's improbable, but possible. So in case you can only take one, you'd have to take one from the tube labelled "mixed". Then you can be sure it's of a single-colored tube. The rest works like before. There are two doors. One of them leads to the castle at the center of the labyrinth, and the other one leads to… > ba ba ba bum! < …certain death! There are two guards by the doors who know which is which. You can can only ask one of them. One always tells the truth and the other always lies. How will you find out which door to go through? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshi Posted March 28, 2006 Share Posted March 28, 2006 Ask one guard what the other guard would say if you asked them which door to go through, and then go through the other door. So, for example, if you ask the lieing guard what the truth telling guard would say, he'd lie and say that the truth telling guard would tell you to go through the wrong door. If you asked the truth telling one what the lieing one would say, he'd tell you the truth, that the lieing guard would ask you to go through the wrong door. That way, the correct door is whichever one they don't say. Simple one, there are 3 lightbulbs in a room and 3 switches on the outside of the room, but you don't know which switch operate which lightbulb. The switches can only be turned on or off when the door is closed and you can only open the door once (whether a light is on or not). You can turn the lights on and off as many times as you like until you open the door in which case you cannot use the switches again. How do you know which lightbulb is attatched to which switch. Oh, and these are wall switches, so no silly answers like following the wires. No windows either, this is not a trick question like that, but it does require some lateral thinking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laserschwert Posted March 28, 2006 Share Posted March 28, 2006 I would ask one of them "Which door would the other guard tell me to be the 'safe' one?"... And then I'll take the other door. Given that door A is the safe one and door B would kill me: If he's lying he'd think "I know the other one would recommend A", and says "B.", since he's lying. If he's telling the truth, he'd think "I know the other one is lying, so he'd recommend B." And since he's telling the truth, he says "B." Another one: An old man is taking a walk in the forest. Two sinister looking men appear from behind a bush. One of them takes out a knife... the other one takes out a gun. They say: "Say something. If it's a lie, we're going to shoot you. If it's the truth, we're going to stab you." What does the old man say to safe his life? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laserschwert Posted March 28, 2006 Share Posted March 28, 2006 Oh, regarding the lightbulb question: I would turn on switch A for a little while, then I'll turn it off again. Then I'll turn on switch B. I enter the room and check... the bulb that's on, is operated by switch B. The bulb that's off and warm is operated by switch A. The one that's off and cold is operated by switch C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thrik Posted March 28, 2006 Share Posted March 28, 2006 Laserschwert: Nothing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laserschwert Posted March 28, 2006 Share Posted March 28, 2006 Laserschwert: Nothing? No, you really shouldn't say nothing to two armed people who want you to say "something". It's not a trick- or joke-question as well. There's one statement he could make to save his life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshi Posted March 28, 2006 Share Posted March 28, 2006 You are going to shoot me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laserschwert Posted March 28, 2006 Share Posted March 28, 2006 You are going to shoot me. Bingo! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
counting_pine Posted March 28, 2006 Share Posted March 28, 2006 But of course he'll die anyway, when the resulting paradox causes the universe to implode. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laserschwert Posted March 28, 2006 Share Posted March 28, 2006 But of course he'll die anyway, when the resulting paradox causes the universe to implode. Well, ACTUALLY it would just kill the two bad guys, since they are changing their minds all the time, until THEY implode. Nothing a good dry cleaning job couldn't fix for the old man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshi Posted March 28, 2006 Share Posted March 28, 2006 Hell, if anything, it'll just give the sinister men a headache. Okay, now I never got how John McClane did this (or whether I actually spelled his name right) so I give this to you. You have a 5 gallon bucket and a 3 gallon bucket. How would you go about getting exactly 4 gallons of water into the 5 gallon bucket? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laserschwert Posted March 28, 2006 Share Posted March 28, 2006 Hell, if anything, it'll just give the sinister men a headache. Okay, now I never got how John McClane did this (or whether I actually spelled his name right) so I give this to you. You have a 5 gallon bucket and a 3 gallon bucket. How would you go about getting exactly 4 gallons of water into the 5 gallon bucket? This is easy: Fill the 5 gallon bucket completely... Put as much water from the 5 gallon bucket in to the 3 gallon bucket, until that one's full (3 gallons), now you've got 2 gallons left in the 5 gallon bucket. Empty the 3 gallon bucket, and put the 2 gallons that are left in the 5 gallon bucket into it. Now, fill the 5 gallon bucket completely again. Put as much water from the 5 gallon bucket into the 3 gallon bucket, until that one's full again (it was missing 1 gallon). Now you're left with exactly 4 gallons in the 5 gallon bucket. (Oh, and yes, you spelled his name correctly ;-) ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scabb Posted March 28, 2006 Author Share Posted March 28, 2006 There are loads of those. A slightly trickier one would be: 8 gallon bucket 3 gallon bucket 5 gallon bucket Make two lots of four gallons! I have another question too, that isn't really a riddle. It concerns the snooze function on both my phone alarm and my regular alarm-clock. Why is it always 9 minutes rather than 10? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laserschwert Posted March 28, 2006 Share Posted March 28, 2006 I have another question too, that isn't really a riddle. It concerns the snooze function on both my phone alarm and my regular alarm-clock. Why is it always 9 minutes rather than 10? This is something I've always wondered about as well... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshi Posted March 29, 2006 Share Posted March 29, 2006 So that the programming in the clock only needs to look at one number instead of 2. For example, if your alarm goes off at 10:02 and you hit snooze, if the alarm was to then go off again at 10:12 (ten minutes later) it'd have to keep an eye on the second 0 digit and the last digit (the 2) so that when the 2 rolls around again, but the 0 turns to a one, the alarm goes off and you get a 10 minute snooze. To make things easier, they just set it at nine, so when the very last digit (the 2) goes down one (so it's a 1, so 9 minutes have passed) the alarm goes off. Very simple programming in comparison. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
counting_pine Posted March 29, 2006 Share Posted March 29, 2006 There are loads of those. A slightly trickier one would be: 8 gallon bucket 3 gallon bucket 5 gallon bucket Make two lots of four gallons! I have another question too, that isn't really a riddle. It concerns the snooze function on both my phone alarm and my regular alarm-clock. Why is it always 9 minutes rather than 10? Just to complicate things, my alarm clock has an 8 minute snooze timer. Do I hear a 7? Re the bucket puzzle: 1) Get 4 gallons into the five gallon bucket, as per Laserschwert's post 2) Pour it into the 8 gallon bucket 3) Repeat step 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kjølen Posted April 23, 2006 Share Posted April 23, 2006 Little bump, sorry, but I have a good one. A man enters a town to get a haircut. He learns that there are only two barbers in the town. At the first one, he enters the door, and sees that it is filthy. There is unswept hair on the ground, and the barber's hair is unclean and poorly cut. The man leaves and arrives at the second barber shop. When he enters, he sees that the floor is swept and clean, and the barber has very neat hair. He then leaves, and goes to the first barber shop to get his hair cut. Why? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laserschwert Posted April 23, 2006 Share Posted April 23, 2006 Assuming that the second barber doesn't cut his own hair, he has to go to the first barber to get his neat haircut... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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