Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Boolean Logic, The Gorge of Eternal Peril

Here is the scenario. You are in a room with two closed doors both look exactly the same. There are two other men in the room with you, one standing in front of each door. One door leads to "The Gorge of Eternal Peril.",  The other door leads to Kansas and you want to avoid the Gorge and go to Kansas.

You are told of the two men standing in front of each door that one always lies and one always tells the truth, but you don't know which is which and both men know where each door leads.  You are also told that they know each other and they know if the other one always lies or always tells the truth. You are further told that you may ask each man one question (It can be any question for either). What questions do you ask the two men to find out which door you want to go out to get to Kansas?

Try and figure it out for yourself before you look at the comments, because someone may already have. If you've heard it before and already know, don't tell until someone figures it out.


Update - to make it easier to  think through, draw a picture, draw a square room with  two doors and the three of you.

Update II - Looks like no one can answer it check the comments and I'll answer it tomorrow sometime. Wonder if The Super intelligence Vox can answer it? If you seen it before and know the answer go ahead and answer it.

8 comments:

  1. I know the answer, but I'd heard this before years ago so it made it easier to figure out.

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  2. Actually, I thought I had figured it out. I realized I didn't. I couldn't figure it out and had to look it up. Damn.

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  3. Well I'll leave it up for a while, then.

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  4. "What questions do you ask the two men to find out which door you want to go out to get to Kansas?"

    Technically, it's possible to get the correct door by only asking one question....

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  5. The answer is one question:

    Ask one of the men guarding the doors: "If I asked the other man guarding the other door which door leads to Kansas, what would his answer be?" After ascertaing the answer go out the other door and you will be going to Kansas.

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  6. Yup. First ran across that in a Star Trek puzzle book almost 30 years ago.

    Here's a similar logic puzzle from the same book (working from imperfect memory, so bear with me):

    Spock was leading an away team on an active volcanic planet, when he got separated from the rest of the team and was captured by a group of space pirates hiding out nearby. They relieved him of his phaser, tricorder, and communicator, then the pirate leader told him they were going to kill him...but he would get to choose the manner of his death.

    "You will make a statement that is either true or false. If it is true, you will die a quick, painless death from your own phaser. But if it is false, you will be thrown into a lava pit to burn to death slowly and painfully."

    Spock thought for a moment before making his statement, whereupon the pirate leader -- being a man of his word -- realized he would have to let Spock go free. Spock found the rest of the away team, and they beamed back aboard the Enterprise.

    What was Spock's statement?

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