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icot
im sorry for your time wasted
i thought it was obvious that it was a joke.
How many 3 cent stamps in a dozen?
feivel-
I totally missed that – you got me!
I just got back from the hardware store with a new box of brain-fuses, to replace the ones I’ve blown.
A question about your halacha riddles – I never would have gotten the first one – Are the nachri barber and mirror halochos agreed upon by rabonim nowadays? I know people use barbers of all stripes (pun intentional) nowadays, and mirrors are necessary for shaving, brushing hair, straightening ties, etc.
(told by my niece)
Yankel the carpenter had a job to do at Truthtown.
When he arrived at a fork in the road where it split to Truthtown on one side and Liarville on the other, he saw to his dismay that someone had stolen the road sign indicating which was which.
Fortunately, there was a man at the fork who had clearly come from one of the towns.
Unfortunately, cruel King Xerxes had passed a couple of decrees that would make it a bit difficult:
1) Truthtown residents may only tell the truth.
2) Liarville residents may only tell lies.
3) Travelers may only ask one question a day (no compound questions).
Under these constraints, what question should Yankel ask to determine the road to take?
I absolutely LOVE this thread!!!
Who in the Torah, had a father and grandfather that were the same person?
iluvchulent-
Amon, Moav
iluvchulent, there are a few people: Lot had children with both of his daughters after Sedom was destroyed. So, Amon and Moav both had a father and grandfather who were the same person.
Icot: Which town do you come from? They would both point to Truthtown.
icot
i dont know the Halachah re barbers
chulent:
Yehudah had relations with Tamar, his daughter in law, so her children were his sons (from him) and grandsons (from her)
OK, I’ll start off with an easy one:
What’s the first thing that tells you that your computer is getting old?
icot
he asks:
which way will the guy tomorrow tell me is liarsville if i were to ask him?
that is the way to truthsville.
I can only try: Yankel’s one and only question should be: Which way would YOUR FATHER tell me to go? (liar would lie about what his father would have answered, which also would have been a lie. Two negatives equals a positive). Another answer could be: Which way would you great-grandfather tell me to go! And so on…..
Havesomeseichel- 12.
iluvchulent- Moav and Ben-Ammi.
Here’s a good one:
A soldier has been captured by the enemy. The commander decides to allow the soldier to choose how he wants to die. “You can make one statement,” the commander says to the soldier. “If it is a lie, we will shoot you, and if it is true, we will hang you.” What one statement can the soldier make that will force the commander to let him go free?
jf02
im a liar.
i mean, not me, the guy in the riddle 😉
He says, “You will shoot me”
3 boxes
one with apples, one with oranges, one with a mixture of both
one box is labeled “apples”, one is labeled “oranges”, and one is labeled “mixed”
all the boxes are labeled incorrectly
your task, should you decide to accept it
put your hand into one box, take out one fruit
determine from it’s identity, the contents of all the boxes
no tricks (you cant feel around in the box or look inside, etc)
jf2
he could also say:”you are going to shoot me”
Feivel-
Take one from the “mixed” box.
Feif Un-
Correct! (die fiefst nischt nur dizie)
Feivel-
“which way will the guy tomorrow tell me is liarsville if i were to ask him?”
I don’t fully understand this, but I don’t think so.
The Queen of Persia-
Very good. That’s not an answer I thought of, and assumes the father is from the same town. (You can change “father” to “neighbor” or “you” in third person).
icot
youre right
for some reason i thought that truths and liars alternated days
i think theres another riddle like that
icot
just checking
do one more step
if he takes an apple out, what is in the box marked apples?
feivel-
Oranges.
If the “mix” was in the apple box, then the oranges would have been in the correct one.
yoshi-
a) it loses its memory.
b) it loses its drive.
c) it cashes in its chips.
Feif Un-
“dixie”, not “dizie”
How many 3 cent stamps in a dozen?
twelve obviously. Did you think I would say four?
This is like the riddle, how many months have 28 days or does England have a July Fourth?
Riddle A: A snail fell into a hole 30 feet deep. It tries to climb out, but can only climb up 3 feet in a day. At night, while sleeping, it slips back down 2 feet. How many days does it take the snail to get out of the hole?
Riddle B: A school science project involves placing a bacteria cell into a jar. The bacteria reproduces at a rate such that the total population doubles every day. (so on the second day there are 2, the third day there are 4, etc). If it takes 30 days before the jar is completely full, on which day was the jar half full?
Correct! (Squeak, and feivel’s second answer.) If he says, “You will shoot me,” they cannot shoot him because the statement would have been true, and they cannot hang him because the statement would have been false, so they have no choice but to let him go free. “I am a liar” does not really work, neither does “Can I go free?” (remember, it has to be a statement, not a question.)
I’m not sure about Riddle B, but for Riddle A, would the answer be 31?
No, 31 is incorrect.
jewishfeminist02 (and squeak): Riddle B would be 29.
Why? Can you explain the answer?
what’s wrong with “i am a liar”
it is a clear statement which should have definitive truth or falsehood determinants, nevertheless it is a paradox and it’s truth value cannot possibly be determined. isnt that exactly the criteria you set up?
can you explain it’s deficiency?
thank you
fem
riddle b explained
it doubles every day
say on the last day (30) there were 500
then on day 29 there were 250, since it doubles every day
250 is half of 500
Riddle A is 30…. cuz basically he is going a foot a day
30 is also incorrect.
29 for riddle B is correct!
And the answer to riddle A is……. (I would put it in white font if I knew how to)……. 28 days. Shkoyach is on the right track, he is basically going a foot per day, so at the end of 27 days he is 27 feet high. But then on the 28th day, he climbs 3 feet and sleeps on solid ground.
squeak-
It could be 27 or 28, depending on if he could climb over the lip once it was reached.
Feivel, I suppose technically “I am a liar” could work, but it doesn’t fit as neatly as the other answer. If you subject all answers to the test of “its truth value cannot possibly be determined” then you essentially create a whole host of potential answers. Why couldn’t the soldier have said “My father’s name is Daniel?” The enemy has no idea what his father’s name is, so he can’t evaluate the truth of the statement. Perhaps this is a weakness in the riddle itself. (I didn’t write it; different versions can be found online.)
Squeak, I don’t think the answer could be 27. That’s why I originally said 31, because I was assuming that the snail climbed 1 foot a day, but on the 30th day he still would not be “out of the hole” yet; it would take him another day to get onto solid ground. If he climbs 3 feet a day, that means he climbs 3 feet a day and no more, not even the few inches that he would need in order to climb over the lip.
i see your point
but
when i wrote “i am a liar”
i meant it in the sense of a liar who lives in Riddle World
as you know from other riddles here, those type of liars always lie and cannot tell the truth
therefore if his statement is true, then he is a liar and his statement is false
if his statement is false, then he is not a liar and his statement is true
a paradox whereby the truth of his statement is immpossible to be determined.
this is not the case with “my father is daniel” where it is possible to determine its truth value
a better way of making such a statement, where we dont have to follow riddle world rules would be “the statement that i am currently making is a lie”
do you understand why that statement cannot possibly determined to be either a truth or a falsehood, why it must be neither?
27? Because on Day 26 he will be at 26 feet plus 3 = 29 , but fall back two feet to 27, and on day 27 he will climb to the 30′ and go out.
I am with day 27. Once he is at the top three feet higher, he just walks out.
ICOT – 27 is definitely not a possibility. Remember that on day 27 he starts out 26 feet high and makes it only to 29 before falling back to 27. Perhaps you meant to say it could be 28 or 29. That would be true, since it is ambiguous what will happen at the lip. The answer I gave (28) assumes that reaching the lip prevents the snail from falling back down. Good point though!
jfem: I am a liar is a statement that cannot be made by either a patent liar or a patent truth teller. Only someone who sometimes lies and sometimes tells the truth can say that. Not so the statement “My father’s name is Daniel”, which can be stated by either a truth teller or a liar (and its validity can be discovered).
Even so, IMO “I am a liar” does not work because a liar could say that (even though it is the truth – someone who sometimes lies is still a liar).
“squeak-
It could be 27 or 28, depending on if he could climb over the lip once it was reached.”
Correction: 28 or 29
Microsoft Puzzle:
(supposedly asked by Microsoft during interviews)
MBD has a concert that starts in 17 minutes and four people must all cross a bridge to get there. All four men begin on the same side of the bridge. You must help them across to the other side. It is night. There is one flashlight. A maximum of two people can cross at one time. Any party who crosses, either 1 or 2 people, must have the flashlight with them.
The flashlight must be walked back and forth, it cannot be thrown, etc.
Each person walks at a different speed. A pair must walk together at the rate of the slower man’s pace:
* Chaim: – 1 minute to cross
* Yankel: – 2 minutes to cross
* Ruven: – 5 minutes to cross
* Shimon: – 10 minutes to cross
Notes: There is no trick behind this. It is the simple movement of resources in the appropriate order. There are two known answers to this problem. This is based on a question that Microsoft gives to all prospective employees.
Source: http://puzzleszone.blogspot.com/2008/08/microsoft-puzzle.html
Day 28 it is, then.
Action
— Elapsed Time — — Total Elapsed Time —Chaim and Yankel walk across 2 minutes 2 minutes
Yankel walks back 2 minutes 4 minutes
Reuven and Shimon walk across 10 minutes 14 minutes
Chaim walks back 1 minute 15 minutes
Chaim and yankel walk across again 2 minutes 17 minutes
Interesting that Microsoft knows about MBD…
squeak
you are right
but to explain (from a previous post on this thread)
when i wrote “i am a liar”
i meant it in the sense of a liar who lives in Riddle World
as you know from other riddles here, those type of liars always lie and cannot tell the truth
therefore if his statement is true, then he is a liar and his statement is false
if his statement is false, then he is not a liar and his statement is true
a paradox whereby the truth of his statement is immpossible to be determined.
this is not the case with “my father is daniel” where it is possible to determine its truth value
a better way of making such a statement, where we dont have to follow riddle world rules would be “the statement that i am currently making is a lie”
I can only try: You’re right. I assumed that all the liars were bnei liars and all the truthniks were bnei truthniks. I’ve never heard the riddle asked any other way.
squeak-
Correct!
I remembered the puzzle from about 5 – 10 years ago, but figured it was popular enough that it could be cut-and-pasted from someone else’s site if I googled it. The site I got it from called it a “U2” concert, but I changed it to MBD since we all know that airplanes can’t sing 😉
2 of Rabbi Chia’s Siblings married each other, completely beheter.
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