Brain teaser thread

Urban Ranger · October 18, 2002, 12:36

Okay, the rules are simple. I'll post a brain teaser. You're all welcome to post your attempts. The first one who gets it right gets to post a new one.

All right, here's mine:

A lawyer friend of yours called you up with a problem. One of his clients had died and he was appointed to be the executor of his will. The will stipulated that seven gold mines are to be distributed to the three sons so that the eldest son gets 1/2, the second one gets 1/2 of the rest, and the third gets 1/2 of the rest. The mines cannot be sold and each mine can be only given to one of the sons.

So how would you help your friend with distributing the mines?

loinburger · October 18, 2002, 12:42

Buy an 8th gold mine, give 4 mines to the first son, 2 mines to the second son, and 1 mine to the third son, then sell back (or keep, or dispose of, whatever) the 8th and final gold mine.

walruskkkch · October 18, 2002, 12:44

THe lawyer screws them all and takes the mines for himself.

Urban Ranger · October 18, 2002, 12:47

Splendid, loin. Your turn.

loinburger · October 18, 2002, 12:50

I got it? Hot damn.

Okay, I don't know many brain teasers (at least not ones that have a solution: "A father has five sons (or maybe it's four?), he wants to divide up his land evenly between the five sons, the property of each son must touch the property of all four of his brothers (corners don't count), how do you divide up the land"), but I know a coupla riddles:

Two bodies have I, though both joined in one
The more still I stand, the quicker I run.

What am I?

Fair warning, I'll be AFK for a bit, gotta go shovel some dirt. Wutang.

Stefu · October 18, 2002, 12:54

Quote:

Two bodies have I, though both joined in one
The more still I stand, the quicker I run.

Conjoined twins in a world where 'quicker' means 'slower'!

loinburger · October 18, 2002, 12:56

Nope, redefining words ain't allowed.

DaShi · October 18, 2002, 12:59

A walking clock!

November Adam · October 18, 2002, 12:59

Is it a body of water?

edit

rather 2 bodies of water joined by a canal, when tipped up it forms a waterfall.

loinburger · October 18, 2002, 13:00

No to both.

November Adam · October 18, 2002, 13:04

its an hourglass!

November Adam · October 18, 2002, 13:05

If I got it someone else post cause baby is fussing.

loinburger · October 18, 2002, 13:05

Yup.

loinburger · October 18, 2002, 13:06

Quote:

Originally posted by November Adam
If I got it someone else post cause baby is fussing.

I nominate Stefu, who gave the first wrong answer. I've gotta go pick up my car and move dirt in a minute here.

Stefu · October 18, 2002, 13:17

Who, me? Awe-inspiring! Hmm... I'll go with one (I think) I first heard from here.

There's this evil magician, see, and he abducts a bunch of gnomes. 12 gnomes, to be precise. He then gives each one a hat. Either a red hat or a blue hat. 6 red hats and 6 blue hats, all in all. He ties the gnomes' hands behind their backs and instucts them to form a line. Like this:

...with

meaning gnome with a blue hat and

meaning a gnome with a red hat, obviously.

If the gnomes can't manage to form a line like that he'll KILL THEM ALL! BWAHAHAHA! To make things worse, the gnomes can't speak to each other (Or they'll all get killed), communicate with each other in any other way (or they'll all get killed) or in any way try to figure out what color hat they're wearing (they don't know it themselves, and cunning plans like tipping the head so the hat falls result to mass gnome death.) They know what kind of hats the other gnomes wear, though.

How do the gnomes manage to avoid certain death? No, they can't kill the magician or anything like that, you smartaleck. Only way they can get out of the certain death is to form a line like that.

Combat Ingrid · October 18, 2002, 13:37

Just count the number of hats with the different colors. The color that is only represented by five hats is the color of your hat.
Just stand next to one gnome with the other color and let the rest fill in the line

If this is the answer you are looking for, I leave it open to soeone else to continue, I'm too hungry to come up with something challenging

Aeson · October 18, 2002, 13:41

Quote:

or in any way try to figure out what color hat they're wearing

Would that be a way to figure out what color hat they're wearing though?

Winston · October 18, 2002, 13:45

I'm just glad I'm not a gnome and don't own a hat.

Stefu · October 18, 2002, 14:18

Quote:

Just count the number of hats with the different colors. The color that is only represented by five hats is the color of your hat.
Just stand next to one gnome with the other color and let the rest fill in the line

Dammit! I know I screwed it up somehow. In original version, I think, the gnomes didn't know how many blue and red hats were there.

However, the right answer's close to this (First one gnome stands somewhere, then another gnome checks the first gnome's hat and goes stand... Oh, wait, I just remembered I screwed the question up in more ways than one. Blast. I'm not really good at this, am I?)

Anyway, Winston gets to go next for his sanguine (Do I even know what that means?) and intelligent opinion which we all should strive to remember at all times.

OzzyKP · October 18, 2002, 14:44

Quote:

Originally posted by loinburger
I got it? Hot damn.

Okay, I don't know many brain teasers (at least not ones that have a solution: "A father has five sons (or maybe it's four?), he wants to divide up his land evenly between the five sons, the property of each son must touch the property of all four of his brothers (corners don't count), how do you divide up the land"), but I know a coupla riddles:

Two bodies have I, though both joined in one
The more still I stand, the quicker I run.

What am I?

Fair warning, I'll be AFK for a bit, gotta go shovel some dirt. Wutang.

Well loin you say the first part didn't have an answer, but i got one for you. Unless you are leaving some of it out, you didn't say the property had to be contiguous, so just splice up the property in such a way everyone can touch everyone elses.

Winston · October 18, 2002, 14:46

Wow, I'm sanguine.

Let me think for a minute here...

Winston · October 18, 2002, 14:52

Okay.

A little girl and a little boy sit on a park bench. When you walk up to them, you get the following statements: "I'm a boy" says the one with black hair. "I'm a girl" says the one with blonde hair. At least one of them is lying. Now, who is who and what colour hair?

OzzyKP · October 18, 2002, 15:05

strip em bare and check

Zero-Tau · October 18, 2002, 15:07

Quote:

Originally posted by Winston
Okay.

A little girl and a little boy sit on a park bench. When you walk up to them, you get the following statements: "I'm a boy" says the one with black hair. "I'm a girl" says the one with blonde hair. At least one of them is lying. Now, who is who and what colour hair?

If only one lied, they'd be the same gender. Therefore, they both lie. Thus, the girl has black hair, and the boy has blonde hair.

Winston · October 18, 2002, 15:09

@ OzzyKP

Now that's cutting the Gordian knot, but I'm afraid you'll have to think harder.

Zero-Tau has it right! You go next then.

OzzyKP · October 18, 2002, 15:28

Do I get any points for solving lions supposedly unsolveable brain teaser?

btw, winston thats a cool expression about the gordian knot, i never heard it before.

loinburger · October 18, 2002, 15:34

Quote:

Originally posted by OzzyKP
Unless you are leaving some of it out

I forgot, each son's parcel of land cannot be divided -- each parcel must be contiguous.

For the life of me I can't remember of this riddle is unsolveable for 4 brothers, or if 5 is the lowest number for which it cannot be solved. I'm almost certain it's 5, though.

Winston · October 18, 2002, 15:34

Well, I looked it up...

If you have another teaser for us, I don't see any harm in posting, since Zero-Tau apparently isn't.

Zero-Tau · October 18, 2002, 15:46

Yay! The Danes will conquer the thread!

...now where the hell did ADG go...

Okay, here's the brain teaser, for all of you.

One day when professor Jones is going for a walk, he meets his old friend, maths teacher Smith. Smith has been married twice, and now has three children.
"Say, " asks Jones, "how old are your children?"
Smith answers: "Well, since you like puzzles, you can think a bit about this. The product of their age is 2450, and the sum of their age is equal to the age of our mutual friend, vicar Anderson."
Jones knows the age of Anderson, and with this in mind, he sets about working out the age of the children.
Late that night, Jones calls Smith and says: "That really wasn't nice of you. You know very well that I need one more piece of information to work out the ages."
"Yes," Smith answers, "but I'll only tell you that my oldest child is younger than you." And then he hung up.
With this information, Jones could work out the ages of the children.

Now, here's the question for you: How old is professor Jones?

Yessir, that's no typo, it really says professor Jones!

Edit: Winston, be patient.

Stefu · October 18, 2002, 15:50

He's fifty, because I once knew one half-insane person, and he was only 25!