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ASF Puzzles & Conundrums Thread
- Thread starter Kauri
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Value Collector
Have courage, and be kind.
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The most common answer is 10cents, which as you know is wrong.
Apparently people who answer 10cents instinctively are more likely to be religious, because they rely on intuitive thought rather than thinking analytically.
Show me the evidence for that statement - or is it just an intuitive opinion.
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ahh! so that's why our Jesuit PM gets his foot so often into his mouth:
He answers first and thinks about it later;
and when his first answer gets him into more strife, rinse and repeat.
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I would have thought they became friends ? How can you become something unless you are a shape shifter? Could be totally skewiff on this one but it does not sound right at all. I have become friends with Cheryl. Cheryl could be a Troglodyte for all I care ... she is certainly taking the P!SS out of poor old Bernard and Albert. Talking in riddles like that to her newest besties. I became friends with Cheryl. Sounds better don't it?
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Does not say what kind of bat now does it? It only states the ball is of the baseball variety.
So where do you get a baseball for 5 cents is the real riddle to this fiscal conundrum.
Value Collector
Have courage, and be kind.
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It's just what was claimed on the website I copied and pasted that from, I am not claiming to know it's a fact, hence why I used the word "apparently" at the start of the sentence.
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I came across this one in a British newspaper today (hence the references to the British political parties). I haven't attempted it yet myself.
There are five houses with the outside walls painted in five different ways. David, Ed, Nick, Nicola and Nigel each live in one of the houses. They each drink a certain type of coffee, have a preferred mode of transport and keep a certain pet. No owners have the same pet, the same preferred mode of transport or drink the same type of coffee.
WHO OWNS THE FISH?
Nicola lives in the tartan house.
Ed has a guinea pig
David drinks mochaccino
The paisley house is on the left of the gingham house
The owner of the paisley house drinks flat whites.
The person who drives by car has a squirrel.
The owner of the striped house travels by bike.
The person living in the centre house drinks double espresso.
Nick lives in the first house.
The person who travels by train lives next to the one who has a pitbull.
The person who has a badger lives next to the person who travels by bike.
The person who travels by plane drinks chai latte.
Nigel goes everywhere by foot.
Nick lives next to the polka dot house.
The person who travels by train has a neighbour who drinks decaf.
For the sake of clarity: the houses are adjacent to each other in a line and the directions are from the perspective of someone looking at the houses. And any resemblance of David, Ed, Nick, Nicola and Nigel to the party leaders is purely coincidental.
There are five houses with the outside walls painted in five different ways. David, Ed, Nick, Nicola and Nigel each live in one of the houses. They each drink a certain type of coffee, have a preferred mode of transport and keep a certain pet. No owners have the same pet, the same preferred mode of transport or drink the same type of coffee.
WHO OWNS THE FISH?
Nicola lives in the tartan house.
Ed has a guinea pig
David drinks mochaccino
The paisley house is on the left of the gingham house
The owner of the paisley house drinks flat whites.
The person who drives by car has a squirrel.
The owner of the striped house travels by bike.
The person living in the centre house drinks double espresso.
Nick lives in the first house.
The person who travels by train lives next to the one who has a pitbull.
The person who has a badger lives next to the person who travels by bike.
The person who travels by plane drinks chai latte.
Nigel goes everywhere by foot.
Nick lives next to the polka dot house.
The person who travels by train has a neighbour who drinks decaf.
For the sake of clarity: the houses are adjacent to each other in a line and the directions are from the perspective of someone looking at the houses. And any resemblance of David, Ed, Nick, Nicola and Nigel to the party leaders is purely coincidental.
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That'd be Nigel.
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Why?
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Why not?
If you take the time to work through the puzzle, you'll see that all other pets are assigned.
Edit: I can step you through the process if you like, but it'll take me a few minutes to remember the sequence as there were quite a few steps with this one.
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At your convenience
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(i) Nick lives in the first house.
(ii) Nick lives next to the polka dot house.
We now know that the second house is polka dot.
(iii) The person living in the centre house drinks double espresso.
We now know that the third house is occupied by the double espresso drinker.
(iv) The paisley house is on the left of the gingham house.
This cannot be the second house (as we know it to be polka dot) nor can it be the first house as it is on the left of the polka dot house.
(v) The owner of the paisley house drinks flat whites.
This cannot be the third house as we know the occupant drinks double espresso, and, given that the fifth house isn't on anything's left it can only be the fourth house.
We now know that the fourth house is paisley and that the occupant drinks flat whites.
We also now know that the fifth house is gingham.
(vi) Nicola lives in the tartan house.
We now know that the only houses with unaccounted colours are the first and third, but we know that Nick is in the first so Nicola must live in the third house which we now also know to be tartan.
(vii) The owner of the striped house travels by bike.
There is only one remaining house with unaccounted colour, namely the first, in which Nick resides. Ergo Nick lives in the striped first house and travels by bike.
(viii) The person who has a badger lives next to the person who travels by bike.
We now know that the badger belongs to the second house occupant.
(xi) The person who travels by plane drinks chai latte.
(x) David drinks mochaccino
We now know that Nick (travels by bike and is certainly not named David) doesn't drink either mochaccino or chai latte, hence those drinkers belong in either the second or fifth house as the third and fourth are already accounted by other beverage drinkers.
Therefore Nick must be the decaf drinker.
(xi) The person who travels by train has a neighbour who drinks decaf.
Therefore the Train traveller lives in the second house, is named David , drinks mochaccino and owns a badger.
We also now know that the chai latte drinker lives in the fifth house and travels by plane.
(xii) The person who travels by train lives next to the one who has a pitbull.
We now know that Nick has the pitbull.
(xiii) Nigel goes everywhere by foot.
Nigel must now be in the fourth house drinking flat whites (we already know the fifth to be occupied by the mochaccino drinking plane traveler).
(xiv) Ed has a guinea pig
(xv) The person who drives by car has a squirrel.
We now know that Nicola owns the squirrel and drives a car and lives in the tartan third house drinking double espresso.
We also now know that Ed travels by plane, drinks chai latte and lives with the guinea pig in the gingham fifth house.
This means that Nigel is the only remaining resident that could possibly own the fish.
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Thanks for that.
Amazing how logical it is when you know how.
Amazing how logical it is when you know how.
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There was a small typo in my previous post:
The aforequoted line was supposed to read : "(ix) The person who travels by plane drinks chai latte."
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I agree and my logic follows similar reasoning to yours although a slightly different sequence.
I made a table with House Number (1 - 5) across the top and the various attributes down the side.
I then listed the the various statements and like you changed the sequence to suit the solution. I attached a letter to each statement and as I filled in the table I put the respective letter(s) that determined each element next to that element.
This is my solution. The table elements should be entered in the alphabetic sequence of the letters attached to them (there is no l).
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BTW, this is referred to as Einstein's Riddle and I read about it here. I would be surprised if only 2% of the population can solve it as I didn't think it very difficult. It involved a lot of steps, but the logic was fairly straightforward.
Einstein's Election Riddle: are you in the two per cent that can solve it?
http://www.theguardian.com/science/...are-you-in-the-two-per-cent-that-can-solve-it
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The Guardian have just published their solution on Twitter. Nigel is correct.
http://www.theguardian.com/science/...-election-riddle-are-you-in-that-two-per-cent
http://www.theguardian.com/science/...-election-riddle-are-you-in-that-two-per-cent
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Whilst I did find the underlying logic reasonably straightforward, there was still the need to employ a level of creativity whilst formulating a strategic approach.
Given that I seldom encounter people sufficiently gifted in the balanced application of logic and creativity, the quoted 2% figure is probably higher than I might typically have expected.
Did we just miss an opportunity to rain on the parade?
Tisme
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I remember my pursuit of lateral thinking started in earnest when my grade six teacher posed this question:
A man form Kenya, with black hair and black gloves, otherwise dressed completely in black, wearing a black ski mask, stands at an intersection looking north in a totally black-painted town that is facing west. All of the street lamps in town are broken. There is no moon. A matt black car heading south, with no reflectors nor lamps drives straight toward him, but swerves in time to miss him. How did the driver know to swerve?
A man form Kenya, with black hair and black gloves, otherwise dressed completely in black, wearing a black ski mask, stands at an intersection looking north in a totally black-painted town that is facing west. All of the street lamps in town are broken. There is no moon. A matt black car heading south, with no reflectors nor lamps drives straight toward him, but swerves in time to miss him. How did the driver know to swerve?
