Press Club (PCians)

Puzzles 2 Puzzle You

                                                          ---YASH (Yes Ask So Help)  

 

1.)    Farmer Crosses River

The Puzzle: A farmer wants to cross a river and take with him a wolf, a goat, and a cabbage. There is a boat that can fit himself plus either the wolf, the goat, or the cabbage. If the wolf and the goat are alone on one shore, the wolf will eat the goat. If the goat and the cabbage are alone on the shore, the goat will eat the cabbage. How can the farmer bring the wolf, the goat, and the cabbage across the river?

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The Solution . . .

Farmer takes Goat across (leaving Wolf and Cabbage behind)
Farmer returns alone
Farmer takes Wolf across
Famer returns with Goat

* We now have the Farmer, the Cabbage and the Goat on one side and the Wolf on the other side

Farmer takes Cabbage across
Farmer returns alone
Farmer takes Goat across

DONE!

2.)    Cards in a Square Puzzle

Take from a pack of cards all the Aces, Kings, Queens and Jacks.

Arrange them in a 4 × 4 square so that every row, column and diagonal contains one card of each value (A,J,Q,K) and one card of each suit (Heart, Spade, Diamond, Club).

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Our Solution:

Here is one solution of many:

3.)    Crates of Fruit

The Puzzle: You are on an island and there are three crates of fruit that have washed up in front of you. One crate contains only apples. One crate contains only oranges. The other crate contains both apples and oranges. Each crate is labeled. One reads "apples", one reads "oranges", and one reads "apples and oranges". You know that NONE of the crates have been labeled correctly - they are all wrong. If you can only take out and look at just one of the pieces of fruit from just one of the crates, how can you label ALL of the crates correctly?

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The Solution . . .

Take a piece of fruit from the "apples and oranges" crate. If it's an apple then you know that is the "apples" crate since ALL THE CRATES ARE LABLED INCORRECTLY. This means the crate marked "apples" must be "oranges" and the crate marked "oranges" must be "apples and oranges".

4.)    Deadly Choice

A man is caught on the King's property. He is brought before the King to be punished.

The King says, "You must give me a statement. If it is true, you will killed by lions. If it is false, you will be killed by trampling of wild buffalo."

But in the end, the King has to let the man go.

What was the man's statement?

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Our Solution:

"I will be killed by trampling of wild buffalo."

If you think about it carefully: the King can't say it is true, because if so the man should be killed by the lions. But if he is killed by the lions, then his statement would be false, and so should have been trampled by buffalo.

So the King can't tell if it is a lie or truth, so decides to just let him go.

Puzzle Author: Yash Bhandari

5.)     Burning Island

The Puzzle: A man is stranded on an island covered in forest. One day, when the wind is blowing from the west, lightning strikes the west end of the island and sets fire to the forest. The fire is very violent, burning everything in its path, and without intervention the fire will burn the whole island, killing the man in the process. There are cliffs around the island, so he cannot jump off. How can the man survive the fire? (There are no buckets or any other means to put out the fire)

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The Solution . . .

The man picks up a piece of wood and lights it from the fire on the west end of the island.

He then quickly carries it near the east end of he island and starts a new fire. The wind will cause that fire to burn out the eastern end and he can then shelter in the burnt area.

The man survives the fire, but dies of starvation, with all the food in the forest burnt.

6.)          Black and White Hats Puzzle

Cannibals ambush a safari in the jungle and capture three men. The cannibals give the men a single chance to escape uneaten.

The captives are lined up in order of height, and are tied to stakes. The man in the rear can see the backs of his two friends, the man in the middle can see the back of the man in front, and the man in front cannot see anyone. The cannibals show the men five hats. Three of the hats are black and two of the hats are white.

Blindfolds are then placed over each man's eyes and a hat is placed on each man's head. The two hats left over are hidden. The blindfolds are then removed and it is said to the men that if one of them can guess what color hat he is wearing they can all leave unharmed.

The man in the rear who can see both of his friends' hats but not his own says, "I don't know". The middle man who can see the hat of the man in front, but not his own says, "I don't know". The front man who cannot see ANYBODY'S hat says "I know!"

How did he know the color of his hat and what color was it?

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Our Solution:

The man in front knew he was wearing a black hat because he knew the first man did not see two white hats and he knew that the second man did not see one white hat because if he saw a white hat, the second man would have known that his hat was black from hearing the first man's statement.