old riddles

by John Doe 65 Replies latest jw friends

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  John Doe

  A guy is on a road and comes to a fork in the road. There are two men standing at the fork. A sign says, "one of these roads will lead to death and the other one will lead to life, but you can't tell which is which. Both of those men know which of these roads leads to life, but one of them always lies and the other one always tells the truth. You may only ask one question to one of those men, but before you do, you won't know who is the liar and who isn't. If you ask the right question, you will know which road to take and live."

  What was the right question to find the road to life?

  I don't know if this is where you're going, but your intructions say nothing about issuing commands, only that you can ask one question. So, ask the same question I posed before, which will reveal the liar. Then, instruct the person to ask the other guy which road leads to life. Then, you've only asked one question, but you've gotten enough information to pick the right road.
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  beksbks

  A boy was in a car wreck and brought to the hospital. The doctor said, "I can't operate on this boy. He's my son", but the doctor was not the boy's father.

  Explain.

  Farkel

  Ohhhh I remember that from All in the Family!!!
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  Farkel

  :"If you tell me that the left fork is the road to life, will the other guy say the same thing?"

  :If the answer is yes, you know you asked the liar and you should take the right fork.

  :If the answer is no, you have the truthful person and you should take the left fork.

  The way I answer it is, walk up to either guy and point to one of the two roads. Ask:

  "If I were to ask the other guy is this the road to life, what would he say?"

  Your answer is incomplete, but on the right track.

  Assume you picked the road to life.

  The truth teller would say the liar would say "no." The liar would also say the truth teller would say "no", because it is the road to life and he always lies.

  Assume you picked the road to death:

  The truth teller would say the liar would say "yes." The liar would also say the truth teller would say "yes", because it is the road to death and he always lies.

  In either case, you only need to do the opposite of what you were told. A "no" answer mens you picked the road to life. A "yes" answer means you picked the road to death.

  Farkel
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  John Doe

  A farmer was getting on in years, so he decided to have a horse race to determine which of his two sons would inherit his property. So, he gets them together and tells them "Boys, we're going to have a horse race to determine which of you will inherit my property. I don't want to see a lot of bickering and fighting and backstabbing that might happen in a normal race and besides, I want to make this interesting, so we're going to switch this up. The boy whose horse crosses the finish line last shall be the winner."

  How would you keep the race from taking forever yet still win?
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  Farkel

  :Take a stick and lay it across the equal sign?

  Good one! But that's not it. The equals sign remains undisturbed in the solution.

  Farkel
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  John Doe

  Well, my head is hurting now, so I'm going to give it a break.
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  purplesofa

  If the boys switch horses they will both race to the finish line thus not taking forever and the last horse that crosses wins.

  If it is ok to switch horses. Of course there still could be alot of bickering, fighting and backstabbing.

  Good hint!!!
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  John Doe

  You got it purps.
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  musky

  Take the matchstick off the second X so it becomes : XIIII divided by VII =II ? The only problem is I needed to straighten up the matchsticks a little. Can I cheat like that?
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  Farkel

  :Can I cheat like that?

  No, because then you would have to move two matches. You can only move one match.

  Hint: the Bible Book of 1 Kings attempts at the solution, but gets it wrong.

  Farkel