RAY: It was a dark and stormy night. You're on Isla Nubar off Costa Rica. You're in your Nissan Pathfinder and you're being pursued by Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Your only hope is to get off the island. Otherwise, you're going to be passing through the digestive system of said Rex. You have to make it to the dock because that's where your little boat is. If you don't make it to the dock --
TOM: You're done for!
RAY: The pterodactyls are circling overhead. You're driving along, and you come to a fork in the road. One road takes you to certain death because you don't know where that goes. The other one takes you to the dock where your little boat awaits.
Sitting at the fork are two guys. Now, on this island there are either liars or truth tellers. You know one road leads to death; the other to the dock. You can ask one question of either one of the two guys. One of these guys is a liar and one of them is a truth teller.
You have no way of identifying them. Is there one question you can ask of either of these guys that will unquestionably get you on the right road to the dock?
-- Edited by ed11563 on Tuesday 16th of December 2014 01:39:12 PM
__________________
The Principle of Least Interest: He who cares least about a relationship, controls it.
Ed, I see you're currently "100% correct". Feels good, doesn't it?
Yes, Thank you.
Either no one is reading my answer, or it doesn't make sense ...
Maybe only you and one other person could understand my convoluted excuse for logic?
I've seen puzzles like this occasionally since I was a child in the 1950's. They've always been a challenge. Maybe I had to get up to retirement age to finally figure it out.
__________________
The Principle of Least Interest: He who cares least about a relationship, controls it.
I liked the puzzler but it made me think hard - sometimes that makes one's brain hurt. I did have to read it several times to keep track of all the threads of possibilities.
I confess - I still wasn't positive so I chose the answer with the sure win. You wouldn't state something that you believed was wrong, and since it was your thread, I knew your answer was the most likely one to be correct. If that makes sense - I just got up and my logic functions tend to trail a few feet behind me until I've had my full cup of coffee.
On that subject, a funny story from the past: One morning when I was still with my first husband (who, when compared to this last one, really was a decent person) and I had JUST woken up and stumbled into the kitchen. The first words out of his mouth were, "I just cut my lip while shaving." My response wasn't at all what I meant in my head, but it came out as, "Inside or out?". For years after that we both laughed about someone shaving the inside of their mouth...
My college fraternity brothers would sometimes wake up after a night of drinking and talk about their mouths feeling fuzzy. None of them ever admitted to shaving inside his mouth, though.
__________________
The Principle of Least Interest: He who cares least about a relationship, controls it.
