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Post Info TOPIC: Puzzler - The Locked Box, and ...


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Puzzler - The Locked Box, and ...
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THE LOCKED BOX

 

RAY:  Imagine you have a friend who lives in an authoritarian country where the government spies on everyone and everything. You want to send a valuable object to this friend. So you have a box which is more than large enough to contain the object and you have several locks with keys.

 

Now this box, I suppose you could call it a strongbox, has a lock ring that can accommodate several padlocks. But your friend does not have the key to any lock that you have. You can't send a key in the mail because the government will intercept it and copy it. And you can’t leave the box unlocked, because the object is very valuable. You have to send it through the mail. You can't hand deliver it. You want to lock it so that your friend can open it, but the spies can't.

 

The question is, how would you do it?

 

The Skeptical Brother

 

RAY: A man was on his way to a family reunion when he noticed the odometer on his car was about to turn over at 100,000 miles. A big deal, right? When he arrived he told his family that he had watched as it happened. His skeptical brother said, 'I don't think so. I bet you really missed it. I think you just discovered that it turned over when you arrived and turned off the engine and you saw that it was over 100K miles.'

But the man was prepared. He said, 'No, I watched it turn over and I can prove it.' And no. . . he didn't take a picture or video. He didn't have a camera phone or anything like that. Still, what he showed his brother did the trick. What did he point out when they both went out to the car?

The Puzzler

 

 

 

RAY: He showed him the odometer. The odometer had something like 100,014.2 miles. Then he showed him the trip odometer, and it had the same last three digits, 14.2. The only way that could happen is if he was looking at the odometer, and pressed the trip odometer and reset it right then and there. So who's our winner?

 

 



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I would ...

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The Principle of Least Interest: He who cares least about a relationship, controls it.

Always misinterpret when you can.



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ed11563 wrote:

I would ...

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 That's one solution.

 

Also have the friend send a lock to put on the box.  Since it mentions it can take multiple locks I wonder if the answer is going to be lock the box and send it back and forth with the friend receiving the box locking it and sending it back.



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On the bright side...... Christmas is coming! (Mod)

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cadiver wrote:
ed11563 wrote:

I would ...

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 That's one solution.

 

Also have the friend send a lock to put on the box.  Since it mentions it can take multiple locks I wonder if the answer is going to be lock the box and send it back and forth with the friend receiving the box locking it and sending it back.


 This is the easiest solution.  Friend then has the key to the lock without it ever going through the mail.



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LawyerLady

 

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