A riddle!

[Aether-Moose]

Hey, here's a fun riddle I heard from one of my friends.

You're in a room. There are no exits other then 2 identicle doors. One door leades to eternal suffering, the other to eternal bliss and comfort. These doors are, however, guarded by two identicle monsters. One of these monsters will always tell the truth when asked a question, and one will always lie.

Without knowing which door is which and which monster is which, what ONE question could you ask that would tell you which door leads to where?

Feel free to post your own riddles, but please, try to take a guess at any already posted so as not to spam the thread with everyone jostling to have their own riddle read.

Thanks.

[The Emperors Champion]

What is my name if 1 can never lie and the other Always does I will be easy enough to work it out

[LordLink]

And that will tell you which monster is which but it doesn't tell you which door is which.

I'm working yours Aether-Moose but for now I'll post my own. It's maths oriented. :happy:

A census-taker calls at a house. He asks the woman living there the ages of her three daughters.

The woman says, "if you multiply their ages the total is 72; if you add together their ages the total is the same as the number on my front door, which you can see."

"The census-taker says, :That is not enough information for me to calculate their ages."

The woman says, "Well, my eldest daughters has a cat with a wooden leg."

The census-taker replies, "Ah! Now I know their ages."

What are the ages of the three girls?

[Phoenix]

Aether-Moose: 'Which door leads to eternal bliss and and comfort?'

LordLink im still working on it lol. Think ive heard it before, i just cant remember.

[Cheredanine]

Moose the answer to your Q is you ask one monster which door the other would say will lead to bliss and comfort, then you go through the other door (unless you actually want enteranal pain, not sure about some of our users )

LL, clearly australia has a very different approach to cencus as well as vetanary care to the northern hemisphere!

[MobiusPrime]

A census-taker calls at a house. He asks the woman living there the ages of her three daughters.

The woman says, "if you multiply their ages the total is 72; if you add together their ages the total is the same as the number on my front door, which you can see."

"The census-taker says, :That is not enough information for me to calculate their ages."

The woman says, "Well, my eldest daughters has a cat with a wooden leg."

The census-taker replies, "Ah! Now I know their ages."

What are the ages of the three girls?

Well, I've deduced the riddle, but I'm not quite sure that my math is right.

The statement "Well, my eldest daughters has a cat with a wooden leg." is a bit of a red herring. Most folks will focus on the cat with a wooden leg and try to ascertain some conclusion based on veterinary knowledge.
What you really should focus on is "my eldest daughters". Because there are three daughters in the equation, this tells me that two of the daughters are the same age, and that they are older than the third one.

So based on this, we can write an equation for the multiple of their ages.

G1*G2*G3 = 72
Let's substitute with x,y and z for algebra's sake.
x*y*z = 72
And since two girls are the same age: x = z
And state this law: x > y
Thus:
x*x*y = 72

If we produce a chart that provides the data that can produce the required product:

X----- X----- Y------ Total
1----- 1----- 72----- 72
2----- 2----- 18----- 72
3----- 3----- 8------ 72
4----- 4----- 4.5---- 72
5----- 5----- 2.88-- 72
6----- 6----- 2------ 72
7----- 7----- 1.47-- 72.03
8----- 8----- 1.125- 72
9----- 9----- 0.89-- 72.09


You can see that only x=6 and y=2 support the law that x > y - without going into wierd fractions.

So the childrens ages are 6, 6 and 2. Multiplied, it equals 72 and added together, it equals 14 (which we can only assume the census taker can see - also assuming the census taker doesn't just ninja kick the bitch until she just tells him the ages).

...
I don't totally trust my math or conclusion on this riddle, and I whole heartedly don't think this much equation is really necessary to solve it.
Of course, all of this is based on the assumption that LordLink didn't just eph up when he wrote the riddle.

Also, for Moose's riddle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight_and_knave
If you're still confused, you could always ask Jennifer Connely.

[Phoenix]

Yea i was looking at the 'daughters' word too, but then surely it should be 'have' not 'has'? I just wondered whether the 's' was a typo lol.

[LordLink]

The book it came out of says 20 Mortimer Street London mate.

Ah crap, I hate it when I put typo's in riddles >_< sorry for wasting your time but you're basically there already.

You figured daughters ended in that result when it was meant to be daughter, that was meant to tell you which of the 2 possibilities it could be.

So yes, no plural on that daughter sorry.

[BDThrall89]

Moose, I would just take neither on faith and go with which felt the most comfortable path to take. Regardless of the path, you can always find another one to lead you to where you are wanting to go.

[LordLink]

heh, I'd just wait for the next poor sucker to end up in the room and use him to figure out which door.

oh you got the wrong door? ok I'm off through this one then.

I'll put up another riddle from my book when I get home.