Cannibal Village problem.

Hi People,

I saw a movie a few years ago (the name now escapes me), where a problem was put forward that someone had to solve.

Here is what I can remember:

Your walking down a road, when you come to a fork in the road, a man is standing at this fork.
You know that at the end of each road is a village, one village is full of people who always tell the truth no matter what you ask them, and the other is full of liars, who never ever tell the truth.
The village full of liars are also human cannibals who always eat any outsiders that come to the village.

The man at the fork is from one of these villages, but sadly you do not know which village, this man will also only answer one question and one question only.

To proceed to the safe and truthful village what question should this man be asked?

Sorry if this at all sounds cryptic but the answer to this has been bugging me for some time. As I cannot also remember the movie I am stuck with no answer.

Does anyone out there know the answer to this and also if at all the movie in which it was stated.

Thanks

"Which road should I take to get to your village?"

-- Jun

Four minutes? Well, that didn't take long. Nicely done June.

Wow. Jun, you ARE a god.

But there's another, shall we say "story" (we call them "acertijos" in spanish but I dunno the word in english) that is: you're in a room with 2 doors. One door leads to safety. The other to death. In front of each door there's a guy. One of them always lies and the other always tells the truth. You can only ask one question to each of them and it has to be the same question. What do you have to ask in order to know what door leads to safety?

Lucy Smith wrote: But there's another, shall we say "story" (we call them "acertijos" in spanish but I dunno the word in english) that is: you're in a room with 2 doors. One door leads to safety. The other to death. In front of each door there's a guy. One of them always lies and the other always tells the truth. You can only ask one question to each of them and it has to be the same question. What do you have to ask in order to know what door leads to safety?

Ask the first guy: is the other guy, the liar?

Then ask the 2nd guy: are you the liar?

If the answers are no, and no: then the 1st guy is the liar.
If the answers are yes, and no: then its obviously the converse.

Neil Mick wrote: Ask the first guy: is the other guy, the liar? Then ask the 2nd guy: are you the liar? If the answers are no, and no: then the 1st guy is the liar. If the answers are yes, and no: then its obviously the converse.

If the 1st one was a liar, the other one was not, so the 1st one said the truth and did not lie.

Better: Ask the first one: "If I ask the other one, would he tell me that you are a liar?" The liar has to say "No" the other one "Yes".
So than you can ask the other one. "Which door is safe". As you know, if he would lie, you know, where to go.

Dirk

Dirk Hanss wrote: If the 1st one was a liar, the other one was not, so the 1st one said the truth and did not lie. Better: Ask the first one: "If I ask the other one, would he tell me that you are a liar?" The liar has to say "No" the other one "Yes". So than you can ask the other one. "Which door is safe". As you know, if he would lie, you know, where to go. Dirk

Except the rules are that you must ask the same question to both men.

Might as well take a page from the fork in the road question. Pick either one of the guys and ask "Which door would the other guy say leads to death?" Then you go through whichever door that is.

If you asked the truth-teller, he'll say "This one." So you go through his.

If you asked the liar, he'll say "That one." So you go through the other one.

You're one question would be. "If I ask the other one which road will lead to safety, what will he say". The Liar will point to the dangerous path and so will the truthfull one.

OK, I had to read the details more carefully, but why then do you need to ask both. As both would point to the same, one question to one would be sufficient.
David's and Joshua's solutions are both equally good, if I understand it right.

Dirk

Both my and Joshua's answers are actually the same concept - but as I understood it you could only ask one question, not one question each

Dirk Hanss wrote: OK, I had to read the details more carefully, but why then do you need to ask both. As both would point to the same, one question to one would be sufficient. Dirk

Well, that's what I was saying. The rules say you can ask both of them a question, but it has to be the same question. But AFAICT, you only need to ask one of them the one question. The "official" answer is probably slightly different from mine.

Ask either one "which way would HE tell me to go"? Then you take the opposite path. If you asked the always truthful one he would tell you the way the liar wanted you to go I:E to your death, therefore you take the opposite path. If you asked the liar, he would lie to you telling you to take the dangerous path, therefore you also take the opposite path.
Clear? LOL

David's right. James, the thing is that the liar doesn't mean you any harm, he just lies. So you would need to ask "If I ask the other one which road will lead to safety, what will he say".
Solved. It took me longer to solve it when I heard it. But well I was like 8 or 9. So any of you guys knows another (how are this things called???)?

there's always the old one, a man has some hay, a goat and a lion, and needs to get them across a river, but his boat is too small to take them all at once. He can only fit himself and one of the three in the boat at a time, BUT if he leaves the goat with the hay it will eat the hay, and if he leaves the lion with the goat, same thing happens.

i will post another thread after this with the answer in a spoiler

[spoiler] He starts by taking the goat over (leaving the lion with they hay) he then comes back and takes the hay over, BUT he brings the goat back with him (leaving just the hay) he then takes the lion, comes back and gets the goat..[/spoiler]

Not looking at the answer:

He takes the goat over first. Then he goes back and grabs the hay. He drops the hay off and takes the goat back with him. He leaves the goat and takes the lion with him. Drops the lion off with the hay and goes back for the goat.

*checks answer*

YEY!!!!!!!!! very well done Josh, you win the prize for being the first person to get it right.

And the prize is *opens golden envelope after pausing for dramatic effect* a week of shikko WELL DONE

OK this one is really difficult, and I don't know the answer, I think someone told me the answer some time, but I forgot.

There are 20 monks living in a monastery, with a vote of silence (I don't know if this is the way to say it: it means that they cannot speak), and no mirrors. One day a chief monk that sometimes comes to visit them, tells them that there are some of them (doesn't say how many) that are marked by the devil, with a spot on their forehead. The ones who are marked, need to kill themselves. As I said, they can't speak and they don't have any mirror or material on which to see themselves. How can the ones who are marked know if they are marked?

Good luck!!

Lucy Smith wrote: OK this one is really difficult, and I don't know the answer, I think someone told me the answer some time, but I forgot. There are 20 monks living in a monastery, with a vote of silence (I don't know if this is the way to say it: it means that they cannot speak), and no mirrors. One day a chief monk that sometimes comes to visit them, tells them that there are some of them (doesn't say how many) that are marked by the devil, with a spot on their forehead. The ones who are marked, need to kill themselves. As I said, they can't speak and they don't have any mirror or material on which to see themselves. How can the ones who are marked know if they are marked? Good luck!!

Had to Google the answer, but since I asker didn't even know the answer, I don't feel bad.

[spoiler]However many monks have the mark, they will kill themselves that number days later. Here's how it works. Let's say there is one monk with the mark. He looks around, sees no one else has the mark, and kills himself that night. If you had two monks with the mark, each would only see one person with the mark, so they would wait. But when that person didn't kill themselves (because they saw only one other guy with the mark, and were waiting to see what he would do), each would realize that he too has the mark, and would kill himself on the on the second day. If you had three monks, they would all realize they themselves had the mark on the 3rd day. And so on.[/spoiler]

Here's a new one I found while looking for the above answer. I think it's pretty easy, compared to the monk one. You are at a party with only truth-tellers and liars. One guy says something to you, but you don't hear it. A second guy tells you, "He said he's a liar." A third guy says to the second, "You're lying!" Is the third guy a liar or a truth teller?

Lucy Smith wrote: But there's another, shall we say "story" (we call them "acertijos" in spanish but I dunno the word in english) that is: you're in a room with 2 doors. One door leads to safety. The other to death. In front of each door there's a guy. One of them always lies and the other always tells the truth. You can only ask one question to each of them and it has to be the same question. What do you have to ask in order to know what door leads to safety?

Actually, you do not need to ask them both. Asking one question to one of them is enough, if you find the correct question to ask. It doesn't matter either where in the room they are standing, but for the point of drama sure it looks better if they are standing each in front of a door.

Edit: gaah, I see it has already been covered in the cannibal village problem.

Joshua Reyer wrote: Had to Google the answer, but since I asker didn't even know the answer, I don't feel bad. [spoiler] However many monks have the mark, they will kill themselves that number days later. Here's how it works. Let's say there is one monk with the mark. He looks around, sees no one else has the mark, and kills himself that night. If you had two monks with the mark, each would only see one person with the mark, so they would wait. But when that person didn't kill themselves (because they saw only one other guy with the mark, and were waiting to see what he would do), each would realize that he too has the mark, and would kill himself on the on the second day. If you had three monks, they would all realize they themselves had the mark on the 3rd day. And so on.[/spoiler] Here's a new one I found while looking for the above answer. I think it's pretty easy, compared to the monk one. You are at a party with only truth-tellers and liars. One guy says something to you, but you don't hear it. A second guy tells you, "He said he's a liar." A third guy says to the second, "You're lying!" Is the third guy a liar or a truth teller?

[spoiler]The third one said the truth.
A truth-teller would never say, he is a liar, because that would be a lie. A liar would never say he is a liar, because that is the truth. So "He said he is a liar" is never true, the second one is a liar and the third one said the truth. [/spoiler]

It is the firt time I used the spoiler, and it is very useful for this thread.
Dirk

There was a policeman walking along a path, next to a high wall. From the other side of the wall he hears a woman's voice say "John, don't do it!" then he hears a gun shot. As he gets to the gate in the wall, he sees a woman laying shot on the floor, a gun beside her. There are a Doctor a Lawyer and a Milkman standing by the body. The policeman walks up to the Milkman and arrests him.
How did he know it was the Milkman?

The Doctor and Lawyer were both women.

LOL. Good one.

OK, this one is really stupid, but well...

There's a black car, with black windows, and black seats, with a black driver dressed in black, going through a black street with no lights and tall trees on each side. The car has no lights either. Suddenly, an old black blind lady dressed entirely in black, with black shoes and a black hat, crosses the street close to the black car. The black driver stops and doesn't hit her. How did he know she was there?