Author |
Topic: Life and death (Read 628 times) |
|
DeMark
Full Member
Gender: 
Posts: 280
|
 |
Life and death
« on: Sep 26th, 2004, 10:46am » |
 Quote  Modify
|
There was a medieval court where 2 pieces of paper would be given to the defendant: "Life" is written on the first one, and "Death" on the second. You could choose.
Well, there was a man who knew that the judge hates him, and he found out that the word "death" will be written on the both notes.
The next day, he wasn't executed. Knowing what is written on the notes, what did he do to save himself?
|
|
 IP Logged |
|
|
|
rmsgrey
Uberpuzzler
    
Gender: 
Posts: 2874
|
|
Re: Life and death
« Reply #1 on: Sep 26th, 2004, 11:14am » |
Quote Modify
|
Picks one note and ::turns over the other::
|
|
IP Logged |
|
|
|
mathunter
Guest
|
eat that paper 
|
|
IP Logged |
|
|
|
John_Gaughan
Uberpuzzler
Behold, the power of cheese!
 
Gender:
Posts: 767
|
|
Re: Life and death
« Reply #4 on: Oct 6th, 2004, 6:51am » |
Quote Modify
|
on Sep 26th, 2004, 11:16am, towr wrote:| Just like the evil mayor and the farmer(?)'s girl |
|
I think it was the miller's daughter. Anyway, I looked up the thread after reading this the first time, and never did find a definitive answer to the riddle. This one confuses me too. How does rmsgrey's answer work?
|
|
IP Logged |
x = (0x2B | ~0x2B)
x == the_question
|
|
|
towr
wu::riddles Moderator
Uberpuzzler
Some people are average, some are just mean.
Gender:
Posts: 13730
|
|
Re: Life and death
« Reply #5 on: Oct 6th, 2004, 10:38am » |
Quote Modify
|
inference.
If the one I didn't pick shows "Death", I must have picked the one with "Life". Unless neither show "Life", but then it would be clear someone cheated.
|
|
IP Logged |
Wikipedia, Google, Mathworld, Integer sequence DB
|
|
|
John_Gaughan
Uberpuzzler
Behold, the power of cheese!
Gender:
Posts: 767
|
|
Re: Life and death
« Reply #6 on: Oct 6th, 2004, 1:30pm » |
Quote Modify
|
What if the one you don't pick shows "Life"? Then you die, right?
|
|
IP Logged |
x = (0x2B | ~0x2B)
x == the_question
|
|
|
rmsgrey
Uberpuzzler
Gender:
Posts: 2874
|
|
Re: Life and death
« Reply #7 on: Oct 6th, 2004, 1:49pm » |
Quote Modify
|
It's stated in the riddle that both pieces of paper are known (by the prisoner) to have "death" on them. Since the rules of the court require the two words to each appear on one piece of paper, revealing that the paper he didn't choose had"death" leaves the cheating judge with a choice between revealing himself as a cheat (since he would only object if he knew the papers were wrong) or letting the man go free. Of course, the man could also demand that both pieces of paper be examined by an impatial witness but that doesn't let him go free.
|
|
IP Logged |
|
|
|
John_Gaughan
Uberpuzzler
Behold, the power of cheese!
Gender:
Posts: 767
|
|
Re: Life and death
« Reply #8 on: Oct 6th, 2004, 10:17pm » |
Quote Modify
|
Ah, I was also thinking of the evil mayor and the miller's daughter. In that riddle, the daughter did not know if the mayor was cheating or not. In this case the judge is. towr made it sound like the same reasoning works for this riddle as well, and I am not sure that it does. Maybe I am missing something, I don't know.
|
|
IP Logged |
x = (0x2B | ~0x2B)
x == the_question
|
|
|
towr
wu::riddles Moderator
Uberpuzzler
Some people are average, some are just mean.
Gender:
Posts: 13730
|
|
Re: Life and death
« Reply #9 on: Oct 6th, 2004, 11:10pm » |
Quote Modify
|
In the other riddle the girl tries to make it more fair, and the same reasoning works there.
Either the mayor didn't cheat, and showing the token you did not pick doesn't change the probability of either outcome. Or he did cheat and you reversed the outcome on him.
|
|
IP Logged |
Wikipedia, Google, Mathworld, Integer sequence DB
|
|
|
John_Gaughan
Uberpuzzler
Behold, the power of cheese!
Gender:
Posts: 767
|
|
Re: Life and death
« Reply #10 on: Oct 7th, 2004, 6:04am » |
Quote Modify
|
I see, the same method works, but not to the same ends (proving the judge cheating, making the mayor's contest more fair). For some reason this did not make sense at first, but it does now. The riddles are more about spectators' perceptions than anything -- showing people whether or not the contest is rigged, forcing the judge/mayor to play fair.
|
|
IP Logged |
x = (0x2B | ~0x2B)
x == the_question
|
|
|
|
RIDDLES SITE
WRITE MATH!
Home 
Help 
Search 
Members 
Login 
Register
Reply
Notify of replies
Send Topic
Print
Remove