OK, here's another spin on the truthteller / liar problem.
Standard scenario: Two villages, one full of liars, one full of truthtellers. Fork in the road, and a person of unknown origin sitting there.
One more problem, though. We are on another planet, and we don't know the language these people speak. All we remember is that "sneep" and "poink" means "yes" and "no". Or was it the other way around? Hmm, drat, I never should have left the dictionary in the spaceship!
Not knowing which means which, is there still a way I can get to the truthtellers' village by asking just one question?
Another riddle
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by vidarino » Wed May 03, 2006 9:02 am
MCC wrote:If you can't speak the language how can you ask a question
Ah. The inhabitants have babel fishes. ;-)
Anyway, just assume they will understand you.
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Re: Another riddle
by Cec » Wed May 03, 2006 11:39 am
vidarino wrote:".. is there still a way I can get to the truthtellers' village by asking just one question?
I've heard this one before but just can't quite get it. I may give some clue here for someone else to expand on.. It's something about asking "is this the right road to the truthtellers' village"? Now the rest of the logic escapes me. Sorry about this confusion but you know what it's like when .... Ahhh.. I'm just waffling now .
Cec
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by udosuk » Wed May 03, 2006 5:15 pm
Point to a road (other than the road you're coming from), and ask:
If the creature answers "poink", it's the correct way. Otherwise go along the remaining one.
Optionally, add the following comment for safety:
space traveller wrote:If I ask a truthteller whether this road leads to your village, will I get "poink" as an answer?
If the creature answers "poink", it's the correct way. Otherwise go along the remaining one.
Optionally, add the following comment for safety:
space traveller wrote:I'm sorry but I must tell you that, if I find out you're trying to muck around with me, I won't hesitate to shoot your eyeballs off (all 11 of them) with my 960MW Laser Pistol...
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by underquark » Wed May 03, 2006 6:37 pm
How do you know that those are eyes? There could also be a low-gravity situation and a stiff breeze.
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by udosuk » Wed May 03, 2006 6:52 pm
Physical conditions aside, there was a slight logical flaw on my original question - the hypothetical "truthteller" might not know the answer to my hypothetical question... Hence I'll rephrase it as:
space traveller wrote:Will a truthtelling guy who knows your origin answer "poink" if I ask him whether this road leads to your village?
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by vidarino » Wed May 03, 2006 7:24 pm
You have pretty much nailed it, udosuk. Well done.
The version I heard; Point to one of the roads and say;
If the person answers "poink", you've got the right road. If not, pick the other one.
Vidar
The version I heard; Point to one of the roads and say;
If I ask you if this is the road to Truthville, will you answer "poink"?
If the person answers "poink", you've got the right road. If not, pick the other one.
Vidar
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