Riddle (2nd try)

Okay, I'll try again... This time, I don't make up my own riddle to eliminate mistakes.

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Rules (no ethical code, on Marius' request): Don't post the answer too fast, give others (from other parts of the world) a chance too. If you really want to know if you have solved it, you can message me privately and I will tell you.

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Equipment: Two ropes, that each burn for exactly one hour. The burning speed isn't constant and unpredictable, and one lighter.

Mission: Measure exactly 45 minutes with this equipment.

Hint: To measure one hour, one would simple lid one rope and wait till it's completely burnt.

Here's a golden oldie that probably some of you have heard before. Only yes/no questions - what's the story behind?

A man walks into a restaurant and orders albatross. He takes one bite - and dies.

And here's another one - easier but maybe less known:

A carrot and two chunks of coal are lying in a field.

You ought to pray for me for safety, when I will drive soon. Nice riddle. :)

klashaas riddle is not very easy, I'll think about it in the evening :). Something related to to put fire at the both end of the same piece of rope...

but Tim's riddle are (maybe) easier:

- the easiest, the 2nd one, it's about a snowman melted in a field?

- the 1 st one, I think it's about a man who's trying to give orders to an albatross, the bird bites him once, deadly...

sorry, I quoted Tim wrongly, it was about Tasmanian Devil's riddles :)

Melted snowman, correct, very good. About the albatross: No, it's not like that.

maybe it was a shoted albatross, and the eater just swallowed the bullet, the throat was blocked and the client was sufocated :(

Nope.

Klaashaas. That riddle sounds very familiar to me. I wonder who told you that! ;)

answer to restaurant riddle:

a long ago, the client has eaten an albatross soup, or what he has thought to be an albatross soup...maybe a soup made from his son's dead body on a empty island (he never kew this fact) ...

the man never had eaten an albatross soup before, so he realized now what he has been eating while he was on that island...so he killed himself

I know many varitions of this, but the basic judgement is allways the same:

Criminals, Scientists, and Feathers

While exploring the unknown, three scientists get caught by a group of criminals. A game is played to give the scientists an opportunity to go free. In the game, the scientists are tied in a row so that one scientist can see the backs of the other two in front of him, the scientist in the middle can only see the back of the one scientist in front of him, and the one in the very front cannot see any of the others. They are shown five colored feathers, among which there are three white feathers and two black ones. They are blindfolded and each of them is given a feather from the group of five to put in the back of his hair. Then the blindfolds are taken off, and they are asked to call out the color of their own feather as soon as they can tell what it is, without discussing it with the others first. If even one of them can guess the correct color of his feather, all three of them will be released. A little time passes and none of them speaks ... then the man bound to the very first stake (who actually can't see anybody) correctly names the color of his own feather. What thoughts lead to his conclusion?

@Roel: the riddle was told to me by a man with who I used to play Othello with on msn gaming zone 5 or 6 years ago. He lived somewhere in Scandinavia (Norway?). But like I said before, it's an old one, so many of you might already know it. Thanks all for keeping quiet, though:)

I've got a few more riddles in my sleeves (I hope I will be forgiven for my terrible riddle on the ss forum, eventually).

You are remarkably good at these Eduard. I don't think I will attempt to stump you with more riddles. ;-)

I found klaashaas' riddle to be quite easy. There is really only one thing to do with the ropes in order to get anything other than half and whole hours...:-)

The guy in front first assumed that his feather was black. Then, if the middle guy had a black feather also, the one in the back would be able to deduce he had a white feather and call it out. Since he didn't, the one in the middle should deduce that he had a white feather, but he didn't. So the assumption the guy in front made that his feather was black could not be right, and thus he deduced and called out that he had a white feather.

Very good, Taz. Your solution can be told also like:

The man who can see the other two didn't see 2 black feathers (otherwise he can tell he wore a white feather), the man in the middle knows that, but he didn't saw a black feather in front of him (so he could tell he wore a white feather), that's why the first man could tell 100% sure he wore a WHITE feather! This solution is going from the facts to the conclusion, your solution is going from the negation of the solution to contradictions of facts (reductio ad absurdum)

I'm used to attacking maths puzzles that way. :p

I have just solved Klaas's riddle, nice riddle. (Much better than your first attempt of a riddle!)

Here's one to think about:

A man arrives at a hotel in his silver car. Within a few minutes he leaves but completely bankrupt. He wasn't a guest at the hotel, he willingly handed all his money away and this probably happens all over the world, everyday and nobody would think twice about it.

Explanation?

I know a stupid one :-)

Three poor friends went to a second-hand shop to buy a TV set. They choose one and the boy from the shop told them it costs 30$. So each one came up with 10$ and they took the TV.

Now, the boss, who was at the back of the shop, saw everything and he called the boy. He told him he knew one of our three friends, they lived on the same street in childhood and he knows the guy is very poor. So he asked the boy to give them back 5$.

The buy runned after the friends. On his way he thought that they cannot divide 5$ to three so he kept 2$ and gave them back only 3$.

The question is: If each gave 10$ and got back 1$ it means everyone gave 9$. So 9$ x 3 people = 27$ and with the 2$ the boy had it makes 29$. Still, they gave 30$ to begin with, where is the missing dollar?

Three men in a restaurant, they share a nice meal together. The bill comes to EUR 25.

Each man paid EUR 10 (i.e. EUR 30 in total). The waiter took the money and came back with EUR 5 change.

The three men scratch their heads and the waiter seeing this, decides if he can offer assistance.

The problem was that the three men did not know how to divide the change equally into 3.

The waiter suggested that the men should leave a EUR 2 tip. This would leave EUR 3 which could easily be divided by three.

Question: Each man paid EUR 10, got EUR 1 back, therefore paid EUR 9 in total. Three men paying EUR 9 equals EUR 27, plus the EUR 2 tip makes EUR 29. Where is the missing EUR 1????

I think that riddle is more on-topic in this forum than the other ones...right?

Crelo, you and I were thinking the same puzzle. You obviously type faster than me!!!!

Was referring to the Indy's hotel riddle.

That $30 riddle is sooo old...:p

What is funny about this 30$ problem is that a friend of mine keeps asking me from time to time to tell her the answer. She remembers the problem but forgets the answer, or better say, she doesn't realy believe it. :-)

To Indy: is faster to type $ than EUR :-)))

A black man, wearing a black suit, black shirt, black tie, black shoes, black socks and black sunglasses is crossing the road. The road has no streetlamps, and no houses have their lights on.

Suddenly a black car, with black tyres and black windows appears from nowhere at 100mph.

The black man continues to cross the road, not seeing the car coming.

However the car slowed down safely in time to allow the man to cross the road.

(By the way the road was black too, the car had no infra-red gadgets and the man was not smiling, so you couldn't see his teeth!!)

How was it possible that the driver of the car saw the man in time??

A man is on his motorbike, together with his 10 year old son. They are driving quite fast on a country road, when suddenly they swerve and have an accident. Unfortunately the father dies instantly but the boy is rushed to hospital in an ambulance.

The boy is rushed into the operating room. The doctor put on some gloves, takes one look at the boy and cries in agony, "Oh my God, it's my son!!"

How is this possible?

all blacks are in the middle of the day... :))))

Well done, Ed. It was daylight.

There are 2 rooms, separated by a coridor, so none can see one room from the other. In one room there are 3 switches commanding 3 light bulbs from the other room, each switch connected to one and only one light bulb :)

It is possible to tell which switch belong to each light bulb?

Assuming you can only go through the corridor once, switch on 2 light bulbs, then turn off one after a while. Go to the other room and check which bulb is on, which one is dark and warm, and which one is dark and cold. The doctor is the boy's mother.

[sorry for my limited vocabulary]

A king decided to test how wise were his 12 advisers. He thought of a riddle and told them the rules in advance.

All 12 advisers were to sit in a circle so that every of them could see every other. Then servants would put a cap on each of the advisers---either red or blue. The king didn't say how many caps of each color there would be, but he mentioned that they would not all be of a same color.

None of the advisers would be able to see the color of his cap and, of course, others would not be allowed to tell him the color or make any gestures. But, as I mentioned, each of them would be able to see the colors of the other 11 caps.

Then, exactly by the afternoon, each adviser with red cap would have to stand up, while every with a blue cap would have to remain sitting. They could stand up one after another or all at once. If any of them made a mistake, he would lose his head.

The advisers had a full day to think of a strategy that would save everybody of them from death. On the next day, five minutes before the afternoon they sat in a circle and caps were put on them. And by the 12th ring of the bell of afternoon, everyone with a red cap stood up and everyone with a blue cap remained sitting.

What was their strategy?

Closely related to that of the scientists with the feathers. :-)

@Paul: I know a riddle kind of like yours, where the advisors have to devide in two groups. But the 'deviding' in 'my riddle' is an active process... I don't know how the blue caps can keep seated... I have to think deeper, I guess:)

applause... =D>

At a game show, you are presented with 3 doors, and you can pick one of them. Behind one of the doors is a brand new BMW, and behind the two other doors is a goat. I'm assuming you'd like a BMW more than you'd like a goat.

So. You choose a door at random, but instead of opening it to show you your prize (or goat), the host instead opens one of the two remaining doors, showing you that it has a goat behind it.

You are now faced with a choice: you can stick to your original choice, or you can choose the remaining door instead.

The question is whether you should switch doors to increase your chance to win or not. And why, of course...

For obvious reasons, this riddle is also known as the Goat problem :)

The goat problem has been discussed at length in internet newsgroups. If the host consistently shows the contestants a different door with a goat, you should always switch, because the probability that you picked the right one first is only 1/3, and that doesn't change, so you have 2/3 chance of winning if you switch. But that doesn't quite apply to the original Monty Hall show, since the host didn't always open a different door.

yper riddle #1: Why is sex better than a box of chocolates?

I think Yper riddle should be : Why is hex better than box of chocolates:)

If you are interested in these kinds of puzzles, then

check the rec.puzzles archive. That should keep you

entertained for quite some time.

For a real puzzle-meister though, all of puzzles mentioned

in this thread are a snap. Here's a solution to the three

unanswered puzzles.

Rope Puzzle:

Light both ends of rope 1 and light one end of rope 2.

When rope 1 burns up, light the other end of rope 2.

When rope 2 burns up, 45 minutes have past.

Riddle about the Doctor and patient.

The doctor is the patient's *mother*.

12 advisors:

Define the 0'th ring of the bell as occuring at some

specified time prior to noon. The strategy for each

advisor is as follows.

Count the number of red caps you see, suppose it is x.

If at the end of the x'th ring of the bell, nobody is

standing, then stand up at the (x+1)'st ring, otherwise

remain seated.

Theorem: If there are n red hats (0people with red hats will stand up during the n'th ring

of the bell.

Proof left as an exercise for the reader. :-)

Something bizzare happened to the statement of the theorem.

Let me try again.

Theorem. Suppose there are n red hats (0 < n < 12), then

the n people with red hats will all stand up at the

n'th ring of the bell.

Nice solution, but Paul didn't mention a clock in his post. Maybe the king count the time with a solar clock? :)))

And the ropes riddle: it was mentioned that everyone should message the author prior to post in the thread, thus leaving the fun for the others

And the guy who arrived at a hotel was playing monopoly...not sure if that was clear from my hint.

yper riddle #2: What have Indy, SuPeRmAn, ypercube, Robin, midnight_express (and probably other people in this site) in common ?

Hi,

Glenn C. Rhoads reported a solution to the rope problem, which only works, if the ropes burn constantly. But in the riddle was said, that they don't do so.

Jupp: No, it works as stated. The solution is independent of how much *length* of rope is burned, it only depends on burning time.

No, it works either way.

Jupp, why do you think that trick only works with ropes that burn at a constant speed?

Clue about yper riddle #2: it has nothing to do with profile, properties, etc. Only with the names :)

yper, about your second riddle, i don't know if there are movies about midnight express, but, for the others, there are movies about hypercubes, indiana jones, superman, robin (hood) etc. :)))