wu :: forums - Print Page


    
      
        wu :: forums
        (http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~wwu/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi)
      

        riddles >> hard >> Another Fork In The Road
        
(Message started by: rmsgrey on Jun 13^th, 2003, 7:36am)

Title: Another Fork In The Road
Post by rmsgrey on Jun 13^th, 2003, 7:36am

I haven't seen this variation here yet (apologies if it is here already)

As usual, you are travelling in a strange country, and reach a fork in the road. As usual, the natives of the area have two classes: the lower class who are completely honest, and the aristocracy whose code of honour means they always speak the exact negation of the truth (the society being too primitive to have developed politicians - who always seek to decieve). Unfortunately, the local natives also come from two tribes, whose dialects are almost identical apart from the fact that one tribe's word for 'no' is the other tribe's word for 'yes' and vice versa. To complicate things further, while all members of both tribes understand english perfectly, in an attempt to attract increased tourism, all guides are required to speak in their native tongue at all times, and the only two words you know in either dialect are those for 'yes' and 'no'. Unfortunately you have no way of telling one native from another, so the guide at the fork you are approaching could be aristocrat or peasant, and could mean either 'yes' or 'no' when he responds to your question. The final straw is that the native guide was just going off duty and will clearly only wait for one question (and you recognise him from the village you stayed in three days ago so he isn't going your way).

You know that one of the paths leads to your next destination, while the other leads to certain death. Since you only have enough supplies to go forwards, not to return to your previous stop, your one question has to garner the information you need.

A note of caution: I made this variant up a while back, and can no longer remember whether a single question is sufficient. If not, then at most one additional question would be required.

A second note: I'm not sure this should be in 'Hard', but since the other Forks are...

Title: Re: Another Fork In The Road
Post by Icarus on Jun 13^th, 2003, 7:03pm

The essentials of the puzzle appear to be similar to my Transylvanian Fork in the Road (http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~wwu/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=riddles_hard;action=display;num=1048217232) puzzle. Though yours makes more sense than mine. I was trying too hard to keep Smullyanic elements.

Concerning solvability - You need only 1 bit of information, so all you need is one "bal or da" question to get it. Its just a matter of phrasing it right that all the things you don't know will not have an effect on the answer.

Title: Re: Another Fork In The Road
Post by rmsgrey on Jun 15^th, 2003, 6:13am

Good point. I was fairly sure I'd decided that it was a single question. And you're right, the transylvanian fork is equivalent (once you explain just what insanity means)

Title: Re: Another Fork In The Road
Post by SWF on Jul 30^th, 2003, 7:29pm

Since it is given than I know the two words for yes and no, I will call those bal and da just like in the Transylvanian Fork riddle. Point to one of the roads and ask:[hide]
"If I were to ask if this was the road to my destination, would your answer be 'da'?"

If the answer to that is 'da' then you are pointing to the correct road, otherwise the other road is the one to take.

(Just like for the Transylvanian Fork riddle.)
[/hide]