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oldie but goodie

Posers and Puzzles

a

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I never mentioned anything about a villiage.
why do people keep talking about villiages?

One of the roads is correct and the other is incorrect, that is all.
you don't know which is the truth sayer and which is the liar.
Uzless is wrong because the liar always lies so if you asked him if he was lying he would always say no.

The second answer (which I won't give yet) would work even if there was only one man there (liar or non-liar).

does this help?

c

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Originally posted by asplandmatt
I never mentioned anything about a villiage.
why do people keep talking about villiages?

One of the roads is correct and the other is incorrect, that is all.
you don't know which is the truth sayer and which is the liar.
Uzless is wrong because the liar always lies so if you asked him if he was lying he would always say no.

The second answer (w ...[text shortened]... ve yet) would work even if there was only one man there (liar or non-liar).

does this help?
You said you can ask only one question to one man, meaning you couldn't ask both men, so that makes his answer wrong. Of course, if you had said you can ask only one question to each man then it would work. But you didn't say that, so it doesn't matter.

a

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Yeah, The question probably could have been phrased better.

T

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If I asked the other guy 'which is the correct road to take, what would his answer be'?

You would then take the OTHER road from the road that either man indicated.

The honest twin would name the wrong road, because the dishonest twin lies all the time.

The dishonest guy would would name the wrong road, because he knows the honest guy tells the truth, and would lie about the honest guy's answer.

In either case, you have been mis-directed.

a

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Originally posted by TheBloop
If I asked the other guy 'which is the correct road to take, what would his answer be'?

You would then take the OTHER road from the road that either man indicated.

The honest twin would name the wrong road, because the dishonest twin lies all the time.

The dishonest guy would would name the wrong road, because he knows the honest guy tells the trut ...[text shortened]... , and would lie about the honest guy's answer.

In either case, you have been mis-directed.
This is correct but Jee already gave that answer.


The answer not yet given would work even if there was only one man, and you didn't know whether he lies or tells the truth.

t

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Originally posted by asplandmatt
You come to a fork in the road. There is a man on each side, one man only tells the truth and the other only lies. You may ask only one question to one man. Without knowing which man is which, how do you find out the correct way to go.....(I am sorry, I cant type a question mark).

I know of two correct answers.
I have heard of one with villages and you want to get to the truth tellers village. the answer is just ask either on the way to his village because the liar will tell you the way to the truth tellers village and the honest one will tell you the way to his village also.

a

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Originally posted by tomtom232
I have heard of one with villages and you want to get to the truth tellers village. the answer is just ask either on the way to his village because the liar will tell you the way to the truth tellers village and the honest one will tell you the way to his village also.
Will everyone please forget about villiages or villiagers.

J

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ask one of them if they're a gaddamn liar, then shoot him

c

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Originally posted by JokerFive
ask one of them if they're a gaddamn liar, then shoot him
Maybe you should go to the village, ask a villager...and then go the way the villager tells you.

ab

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Originally posted by asplandmatt
why do people keep talking about villiages?
Because this is a quite common sort of problem.
There are several variants which involve people from village A all being liars, people from village B all being truthful. There can be other villages where the people lie or tell truth randomly, or alternately.

Another variant (perhaps the original variant) is Knights and Knaves. Knights always tell the truth, Knaves always lie.

and so on.

see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_and_knaves
particularly Question 4

K

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Basically, the reason why everyone goes on about villages and villagers is because a question like "what would the other guy say?" only works if the guy you're asking knows that guys like the other guy (i.e. from his VILLAGE/town/country etc) ALWAYS lie/tell the truth.

If the two men don't know anything about each other, then questions which demand a knowledge of the other person's habits will not work, and are therefore not valid answers to your question.

a

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Look. It has been long enough. The answer is:

If I was to ask you which was the right way to go, what would you say?

AThousandYoung
1st Dan TKD Kukkiwon

tinyurl.com/2te6yzdu

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http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0327.html

Suzianne
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Originally posted by Kipyusha
'The Apologetic' is right cos the answer given above assumes that each man knows the habits of the other village, and that they all either lie or don't lie, which wasn't specified in the original puzzle...
Who cares about a "village", or that village's "habits"?

All each man has to know is whether the other will always lie or always tell the truth.

His "village" doesn't even enter into it. I mean, he could even be from Oshkosh, Wisconsin for all that. 😉

Suzianne
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Originally posted by cmsMaster
You said you can ask only one question to one man, meaning you couldn't ask both men, so that makes his answer wrong. Of course, if you had said you can ask only one question to each man then it would work. But you didn't say that, so it doesn't matter.
Wrong. Each man gives the *same* answer, so it doesn't matter if you ask one man or a thousand men.

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