Riddle

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Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 8:04 pm

read my edit where I explain things further. Smile

Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 8:06 pm

KD- How spooky is this? Eater repeating itself TWICE in the same thread!

http://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=99084&highlight=infinity

Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 8:10 pm

Hey I didn't start either of these, just trying to show people that they are wrong not math. Which you understand what I am saying then Jojo. I am a Comp Sci grad so I have had plenty of dealings with math myself.

Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 8:16 pm

TheGreatOok wrote:

I am a Comp Sci grad

Pfft.

I just thought it ironic that both of these had been posted. No harm.

Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 8:17 pm

Here, we'll play another game. I'll give you the punch line, you see if you can remember the joke...

PUNCH LINE "I would, Maam, but I don't think I have enough room in my ass for another baked potato...

Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 9:18 pm

Is that the one where the gentleman gets his equipment replaced with an elephant's trunk?

Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 9:31 pm

Baked potato you say?!

http://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=100631&highlight=baked+potato

Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 9:32 pm

I think the answer on the game show thing is dead wrong. It makes no sense to switch, but you may as well since both have an equal probability of winning. Although the odds of picking the right one was originally 1/20, we now have better information and know it's in one of 2, and there's no reason to think it's more likely in one than the other.

Here's a hard one.

Two guards stand before two doors. One leads to freedom, the other to certain death. You must go through one of the doors, but before you do so you can ask one of the guards one question.

One of the guards always lies. The other always tells the truth. You don't know which is which.

What question do you ask, and how do you act on it?

Here's a hint: the guards know eachother.

Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 9:35 pm

This thread began as something I enjoyed, but now my head hurts Sad

Ask the guard which way his mate would tell you to go.

Baiting Guru Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Posts: 3193

jojobean wrote:

KD- How spooky is this? Eater repeating itself TWICE in the same thread!

Hey crossfire, did you ever find out where that 3% went to?

Another way to say the same thing:

1/9 = 0.11111 etc.
1 = 9 x 1/9
1 = 0.99999 etc.

I get the feeling that it's more to do with the inadequacies of decimal representation than a problem with maths.

Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 9:49 pm

Snore....

Surely, the law of probability states it's half and half?

I'm no mathematician, in fact I'm a natural blonde, but I do remember what Mrs Wass said to us in maths 20 odd years ago...

Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 10:01 pm

For sake of example: Left door is the DEATH door, Right door is the GOOD door.

Quote:

Ask the guard which way his mate would tell you to go.

That can't be right. The Lying Guard would say his friend would go through the left door. The Truthful Guard would say his friend would go through the right door. You're still left with one answer or the other.

And you're only allowed one question to one of them, right?

So that's not it.

I say.........wait for them to go off duty and follow them through whichever door they use.

Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 10:07 pm

^^^Ok...

Left is death, right is good.

One guard always tells the truth.
One guard always lies.

If you ask either guard which way his friend would tell you to go, the guard who always tells the truth would know his friend would lie about the good door and tell you to go through the death door.
The guard who always lies, would say his friend would tell you to go through the death door.
So, whichever way either guard answers, you go through the opposite door.

(Think I forgot to say that bit Embarassed

)

Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 10:10 pm

I believe there is a scene in the movie Labyrinth that poses and answers the question about the doors and guards. Unfortunately, I don't remember the answer.

Baiting Guru Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Posts: 3193

Regarding the boxes TV show. I haven't seen it, but my take would be:

The fact that the boxes are chosen at random, and they all have valuable prizes in them totally changes the game.

Consider a game with three boxes, each containing $1, $2 or $3.

We will call these boxes "yours", "remaining" and "discarded". There are a limited number of combinations, and we can write them all out:

Code:

yours remaining discarded switch?
1 3 2 y
1 2 3 y
2 1 3 n
2 3 1 y
3 1 2 n
3 2 1 n

No matter what the value of the discarded box, there is a 50% chance that you should switch. Extending this to twenty boxes is left as an exercise for the interested reader.

-----------------------------------

You ask either guard "If I ask the other guard, which door will he say leads to freedom?" Then chose the other door.

A similar sounding problem I invented a while back that is actually different:

You have two doors
One is labeled "The door to freedom is engraved with lies, the other with the truth."
The other is labeled "The door to freedom is engraved with the truth, the other with lies."

[edit: I had mis-remembered and missed the second clauses off.]

Not quite a Newb Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 41

Assuming that the only engravings of these words are in the sentences, I would take the "lies" door.

Edit to add, since Thud rephrased his question:

This is question that I answered, as originally posed by Thud:

The door to freedom is engraved with lies.
The door to freedom is engraved with the truth.

Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 10:27 pm

I think this link answers the question about the money and goats and whether you should switch or not. It involves only three doors, but the logic should be the same.

I am particularly fond of the last quote at the bottom of the page. Very Happy

EDITED: For clarification

Baiting Guru Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Posts: 3193

^^^ I stand by my answer. In the gameshow with the goats you should switch. In the gameshow with the money it does not matter. Any other opinion shows a misunderstanding of why the goat-switch works.

I love the comments in that article.

TSNerd, you're wrong.

Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 10:50 pm

Reprob8 wrote:

Here, we'll play another game. I'll give you the punch line, you see if you can remember the joke...

PUNCH LINE "I would, Maam, but I don't think I have enough room in my ass for another baked potato...

[best McDonald voice] Would you like fries with that Big Mac... er... Quarter Pounder... er umm... Cheese Burger? [/best McDonald voice]

(Why did those food choices sound naughty?)

Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 11:00 pm

thud419 wrote:

TSNerd, you're wrong.

? I don't think I'm really getting the question then.

(This is the exact reason I dyed my hair brown. It's not working.)

Baiting Guru Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Posts: 3193

I've edited my post, although I think the original implied the change. I'm off to bed now, I'll post the solution tomorrow.

Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 11:22 pm

thud419 wrote:

You have two doors
One is labeled "The door to freedom is engraved with lies, the other with the truth."
The other is labeled "The door to freedom is engraved with the truth, the other with lies."

I think I'm having a blonde moment because both doors point to the other.

The door of truth states the other door is lies, which is true.
The door of lies states the other door is true. Which is true.

But then, the door of lies isn't really lying is it?

(God, this is playing out like a Monty python scene in my head Laughing

)

Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2007 12:39 am

luckey wrote:

Is that the one where the gentleman gets his equipment replaced with an elephant's trunk?

You are correct!!!

Next...

"But tell me, Two Dogs F%$king, why do you ask?"

Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2007 1:31 am

Native American boy asks how he got his name.

Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2007 1:40 am

I heard this (the hotel version of where the extra dollar went) when I was but a boy, and recently was trying to think how the riddle went. Thanks for reminding me. Now off on a tangent, not exactly a riddle but a twist on math as above, does anybody remember the Abbott and Costello routine where Costello is adding a column of double digit numbers and always comes up with a wrong answer but can "prove" it using the same style logic?

edit- YouTube is your friend, 7x13=28!