Mindbreakers .com - Puzzles and Riddles

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You have entered the city !

You asked something like this:

What would your sister tell me if I asked her where this path leads ?

Let’s call the sisters truth and lie.

Let’s imagine that truth is standing for heaven and lie is standing for hell.

If you’d ask truth this question she would tell you what lie would tell you (’hell’), so the total answer would be ‘hell’.

If you’d ask lie this question she would NOT tell you what truth would tell you (’heaven’), so the total answer would be also be ‘heaven’.

Therefore you should take the path from which the sister answers ‘hell’…

This solution was sent in by Morganna the Unholy.

Corey Thurston has a different explanation based on an empirical experiment.

‘My comment is about the “Truth of Lie” riddle. Even after reading the
solution, I still couldn’t figure out how you would know which path
leads to where if you didn’t already know the answer. So with the help
of some friends we reenacted the scenario. I’ve come up with a
different way to explain the solution. You ask the question “What would
your sister say this path led to?”. Whatever answer you get, either
“city” or “forest”, from either the truth teller or the liar it doesn’t
matter, you know that the place that they answered, either “city” or
“forest”, that place is located behind the opposite path then the one
you asked about. I realize this also doesn’t make much sense, so here’s
an example. “What would your sister say the path on the left led to?”
The sister answers, “The forest.” So now you know that no matter what
the path on the right leads to the forest. And if you asked the same
question at another time in another situation and the sister said, “My
sister would say that the path on the left went to the city”, you would
know that the path on the right led to the city. I recommend actually
trying this riddle out with actual people and actual paths (or doors).
Have them pick who is the liar and who is the truth teller and which
door leads to where.

I really enjoy your riddles and can’t wait for more!!’

Here is a sort like problem:

You are heading for RiddleCity and come to a fork in the road with no
signposts. You know that in this area there are only two kinds of
people, liars and truthtellers and that the words grock and grink mean
yes and no but you don’t know which one means yes and which one means
no. A man approaches (either a liar or a truthteller but you can’t tell
them apart). You ask the man one question which he answers either
“Grock” or “Grink” and you know for sure which is the road to
RiddleCity. What question did you ask ?

Solution:

You point to one of the forks and ask, “If I asked you if this was the
the road to RiddleCity, would you say “Grink”. If he says “Grink”, that
is the correct road.

Alternatively, you could ask, “If I asked you if this was the road to
RiddleCity, would you say “Grock”. If he says “Grock”, that is the
correct road.

The sad part is that you still don’t know if the man is a liar or a
truth teller ond whether Grink means or Grock means yes.

Sent in by James J. O’Connor

Please wait before you get some legal advice to sue the bellboy, let’s do some thinking first … This could be a way to earn some easy money fast!

Each person paid $9, totalling $27. The manager has $25 and the bellboy $2.
The bellboy’s $2 should be added to the manager’s $25 or subtracted from
the tenants’ $27, not added to the tenants’ $27.

- $29 to $ 31 -

John Ferguson e-mailed me and told me there is a follow-up to the $29 “problem”…

‘Later on, two salesmen come in and get a room. They pay the manager $30 and go to their room. The manager — this just isn’t his day — again discovers that the rate is $25, so he gives the bellboy $5 and tells him to return it to the salesmen. The bellboy again reasons that he cannot split $5 evenly (as the manager gave him 5 one-dollar bills), so he pockets $3 and gives the salesmen back 1 each.

Each salesman initially paid $15 and received $1 back. Thus $14 times the two salesman equals $28, plus the $3 that the bellboy kept totals $31.

There’s the missing dollar :-)’

The answer is: House numbers!

Each digit costs $0.50. People always assume that the nubmer 1, 12 and 144 refer to the quantity of the items, which is what makes this puzzle hard.

To be fair, you must type out the numbers and not the words (ie: one, twelve, etc), in order not to be misleading.

This creative riddle was sent in by Samuel Fursey.

You should choose the door the game host is offering you.

Then you will get this ferrari ! No need for car hire any more! YOU are the lucky winner of the following FERRAI ! (you should get cheap insurance for the car).

If you have NOT choosen this door, you will get the following:

Pimp-My-Ride Car !! (no external link, page on this site)

Why his door ?
Well, ’cause there’s a 10% chance the door you picked first had the ferrari.
The game host then had to open 8 empty doors and had to leave one door closed. That door will probably (90% chance) hide the ferrari.

Scott Deen has sent in the following:

‘About the gameshow problem…
It is wrong. Both of the final doors have an equal probability of holding the car. If the person had picked the other door before the host opened the eight other doors, would that mean that the door he didn’t choose now had the car? Each door had a 10% chance of having the car. Take away 5 doors and each door has a 20% chance. Take away all but two doors and they each have a 50% chance of having the car.
Are you ever going to attempt correct this incorrect solution?’

Well, the solution is correct in my opinion. The chance that you pick the right door at first is 10%. The chance one of the other 9 doors is hiding the ferrari is 90%. If the host opens the doors of which he knows do not hide the ferrari, the last unopened door has still a 90% chance of containing the car.

More people have mailed me on this. Does anybody else have a better explaination ?

Finally, Mark Jahnke mailed in this explanation:

‘If, instead of opening the eight doors, the host offered to exchange the contents of the nine doors you did not choose for the one door you did choose you would be crazy not to take the nine doors. This is exactly what the host offers in Gameshow.

I realize I am preaching to the choir, but if the analogy helps you explain the solution please reply.’

I don’t think I could come up with a more elegant explanation !

I keep getting e-mail from people who think this answer is wrong. Tom Breedlove sent me the following. although he arguments for a wrong solution, I still think it is right. The argument he provides explains everything … it is just how you tell the riddle. The record was set with the proposition “the game host does know where the ferrari is“.

‘I’ve enjoyed the mind breakers, but…
On the “Gamehost” puzzle: The solution ~is~ wrong.
The explanation of Scott Deen is correct. Yes, you start with a 10% chance of picking the right door, and yes after opening 8 doors, the host knows which of the remaining doors hides the car: either the one you picked or the one he is offering as an alternative. Only two doors left so at this stage of the game you have a 50/50 shot at it. The probabilities at this point are no longer based on 10 closed doors as your numbers are suggesting. The probability of picking the correct door is 50% since there are only two in question. The other opened doors are no longer part of the equation. Your chances of picking the right door are increased from 10% to 50%.
The explanation of Mark Jahnke does not apply as the puzzle is currently worded. This explanation trades you 9 out of 10 choices (90%) for the 1 out of 10 choice (10%) the host originally offered. This is ~not~ the same as starting with a selection set of 10 doors, then revising the selection set to only two doors.
If you really need proof, have a friend sit down with 10 cards from a deck, and make sure one of the cards represents the prize. Make sure the person laying the cards face down knows where the “prize” is, then duplicate your puzzle as it is written. Do this enough times and you’ll see that your chances for picking the right card will always be 10%, not 90%.
Hope this helps clear things up.’

Okay, here is the LAST argument on this case from Jason Boomer.

‘On the “gameshow” question, you could tell scott dean this to explain his wrong answer. If you chose the wrong door the first time, then you are guaranteed to get the right door if you switch. There is a 90% chance you get the wrong door the first time, so if you switch you do have a 90% chance of winning. So you’re answer is correct.’

The wizard gave them 5 seconds, however, B only answered in the 4th second, which means that, the one on top of the stairs do not know the answer.

Being the one on top {A}, you are able too see all those below, {B and C} however, you still do not know the colour of your hat, this means that the colour of the hat of the man in the center and foot of the stairs {B and C} are different.

The man in the center {B}, must have thought of it and is very sure that the man in front of him had a hat of different colour, and since he could see the person in front, if the person in front had a white coloured hat, then his is black, or vice versa.

Sent in by Baldwin Kurniawan.

You turn two switches ‘on’ and one switch ‘off’ and you wait…

Just before entering the room you turn one switch from ‘on’ to ‘off’.
If the lightbulb is warm, but off, it has to be that last switch.
If it is on, it has to be the switch that is turned on.
If it cold and is off, it has to be the switch which was already off.

Peter Hosszu has sent an excellent update on this riddle:

‘I think you could have four switches (let’s name them A, B, C and D) instead of three.
The solution in this case:

Turn on A and B for a while, then turn off A and turn on C.
The switch in control depending on the state of the bulb:
A warm and dark
B warm and light
C cold and light
D cold and dark.’

Maybe now you could help these ladies with their light.