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To test your mental acuity, answer the following questions


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Lightmeow said 1 hour as well. He can't be wrong if Olinguito is right. tongue.png

 

Again you are right I did not take the time to read Lightmeow's answer thoroughly, maybe I am entering dementia, I am extremely old and frail. unsure.png

 

I went back and edited out my mistake and made the expected apology to him. smile.png

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I said in my post that started the topic that I would give the link after you guys came up with the answers.

 

http://www.forbes.com/fdc/welcome_mjx.shtml

Here are two more

 

In an experiment,you shoot a bullet , down a level flat plane, and drop a bullet at the same moment.

 

A) At the exact moment bullet A) leaves the barrel of your gun, your friend dropped another bullet B) from his hand at exactly the same height and moment the bullet was expelled out of the end of your gun..

 

1) Which bullet hits the ground first?

 

Okay, while the answer they are looking for is that the bullets will hit at the same time, this is not technically correct, because this answer neglects the curvature of the Earth.

So for one thing a perfectly flat plane will not be "level" (perpendicular to gravity) along its whole length. Thus if you have a long straight plane, it is only tangent to the Earth's surface at one point.

 

So the first question you need to ask whether you want to consider such a plane or a surface that follows the curve of the Earth. (level at all points but not flat).

 

Then you have to consider the speed of the bullet.

 

For example, if the bullet is fired at orbital velocity, and ignoring air resistance, it would never hit the surface of the Earth. Even accounting for air resistance, it would hit the ground after the bullet just dropped would.

 

If dealing with the flat plane, the plane will intersect the orbital path of the bullet, so it will hit the plane. So, for example, if the bullets were fired and dropped from 4 m, the dropped bullet would take 0.9 sec to hit and the fired bullet will intersect the plane in 0.36 sec, and actually hit first.

 

So in reality, the scenario is more complicated than it originally looks.

 

Of course, with a reasonable bullet velocity, the above stated differences in "fall time" will be very very small and hard to detect.

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Okay, while the answer they are looking for is that the bullets will hit at the same time, this is not technically correct, because this answer neglects the curvature of the Earth.

So for one thing a perfectly flat plane will not be "level" (perpendicular to gravity) along its whole length. Thus if you have a long straight plane, it is only tangent to the Earth's surface at one point.

 

So the first question you need to ask whether you want to consider such a plane or a surface that follows the curve of the Earth. (level at all points but not flat).

 

Then you have to consider the speed of the bullet.

 

For example, if the bullet is fired at orbital velocity, and ignoring air resistance, it would never hit the surface of the Earth. Even accounting for air resistance, it would hit the ground after the bullet just dropped would.

 

If dealing with the flat plane, the plane will intersect the orbital path of the bullet, so it will hit the plane. So, for example, if the bullets were fired and dropped from 4 m, the dropped bullet would take 0.9 sec to hit and the fired bullet will intersect the plane in 0.36 sec, and actually hit first.

 

So in reality, the scenario is more complicated than it originally looks.

 

Of course, with a reasonable bullet velocity, the above stated differences in "fall time" will be very very small and hard to detect.

 

 

In my question , I said you fire the bullet down a spirit level flat plane, You are right it is more complicated than it seems , but relative to the enormity to the earth,in the scenario, I depicted the difference in time would be infinitesimal, not the large difference it time to reach the ground as you suggest.. The point of the question, was to show that the force of gravity effects objects equally, from the same height above the surface of the earth, regardless of velocity .

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For question 3, the correct answer is to ask the guard what the other guard would say is the doorway to peace and freedom and then do the opposite to get through the correct door. I remember this question from a logic class I had 20 years ago, lol. It was a really tough problem so it was ingrained in my brain from looking at it over and over.

 

If I'm asking the guard that always tells the truth, he'll tell me the other guard will say the door to the hangman is the door to peace and freedom (since that guard always lies). I go through the other door to get my freedom.

 

If I'm asking the guard who always lies, he'll tell me the other guard will say the door to the hangman (since he's lying). Again, I go through the other door to get my freedom.

 

 

It's kind of cheating since I remembered the reasoning behind it from my logic class and didn't really have to think about it too much.

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By typing it out and clicking "post".

 

How did I do?

 

Your sarcasm and wit are breathtakingly brilliant!

For question 3, the correct answer is to ask the guard what the other guard would say is the doorway to peace and freedom and then do the opposite to get through the correct door. I remember this question from a logic class I had 20 years ago, lol. It was a really tough problem so it was ingrained in my brain from looking at it over and over.

 

If I'm asking the guard that always tells the truth, he'll tell me the other guard will say the door to the hangman is the door to peace and freedom (since that guard always lies). I go through the other door to get my freedom.

 

If I'm asking the guard who always lies, he'll tell me the other guard will say the door to the hangman (since he's lying). Again, I go through the other door to get my freedom.

 

 

It's kind of cheating since I remembered the reasoning behind it from my logic class and didn't really have to think about it too much.

 

Your answer is correct, the lie which is a negative always leads to the opposite of the truth, thus any answer you get from any of the guards you do the opposite.

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http://www.rochester.edu/College/phl/puzzles.html

 

There Are Two Errors in the
the Title of This Page

 

 

 

1) On the Island of Knights and Knaves:

 

On the island of Knights and Knaves, every inhabitant is either a knight or a knave. Knights always tell the truth. Knaves never tell the truth; any sentence uttered by a knave is false. A stranger came to the island and encountered three inhabitants, A, B, and C. He asked A, "Are you a knight, or a knave?" A mumbled an answer that the stranger could not understand. The stranger then asked B, "What did he say?" B replied, "A said that there is exactly one knight among us." Then C burst out, "Don't believe B, he is lying!" What are B and C?

 

2) One day I went to the island of knights and knaves

 

And encountered an inhabitant who said, "Either I am a knave or else two plus two equals five." What should you conclude?
(Knights and Knaves puzzles by Raymond Smullyan)

 

3)The Surprise Test:

 

One day the professor came into the class and announced, "Next week I will give you a surprise test. It will be a surprise, because you won't be able to figure out on which day it will occur until the class meets on the day of the test. It could happen on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, but I won't tell you which day."

 

The class were clever. They reasoned as follows: "She can't give the test on Friday, because then it wouldn't be a surprise; we'd know after class on Thursday that the test hadn't yet occurred, and hence we'd figure out that it would have to be on Friday. So we know the test can't be on Friday. But then it can't be on Thursday either, because if it were, we would know after class on Wednesday that it would have to be on Thursday, since it wouldn't have happened yet, and we have already shown that it can't be on Friday." Reasoning in this manner, the students concluded that the test could not occur on Wednesday either, nor on Tuesday, nor on Monday. Having concluded that a surprise test was impossible, the students didn't study. They were very disappointed and very surprised on Wednesday when they got a test. Where did the students' reasoning go wrong?

 

4) The Problem of the Light Switch:

 

I have an ordinary light switch connected to a light. When the switch is closed, the light is on. When the switch is open, the light is off. At two minutes to noon, the light is on. At one minute to noon I flip the switch, turning the light off. At half a minute to noon I flip it again, turning the light on. At a quarter of a minute before noon I flip it again, turning the light off. I continue in this way, cutting the time between flippings of the switch in half each time. Now this will be an infinite series of flips. The switch flippings will occur closer and closer to noon, but will all be completed before noon. Will the switch be on or off at noon?

 

5) The Super Bullet:

 

The Acme Arms Company has invented a Super Bullet: a Super Bullet penetrates anything it hits. But the Adamantine Armor company has invented a Super Strong Armor Plate: nothing that hits a Super Strong Armor Plate penetrates it. The army is planning to shoot a Super Bullet at a Super Strong Armor Plate. What will happen?

 

6) The monkey:

 

Hanging over a pulley there is a rope with a weight at one end; at the other end clings a monkey of equal weight. The rope weighs 4 ounces per foot. The sum of the ages of the monkey and its mother is eight years, and the weight of the monkey is as many pounds as its mother is years old. The mother is twice as old as the monkey was when the mother was half as old as the monkey will be when the monkey is three times as old as its mother was when she was three times as old as the monkey was. The weight of the rope and weight is half again as much as the difference between the weight of the weight and the weight plus the weight of the monkey. How long is the rope?

 

Paradox

 

(This version of the classic story was written by Earl Conee.)

 

The Malfunctioning Transporter:

 

You step into the Transporter on the Star Ship Enterprise to be transported down to the surface of the planet Duplo. However, while you are being transported, an unfortunate energy surge occurs, with surprising results. Two copies of you materialize on the planet's surface instead of one. Each is a molecule-for-molecule duplicate of you as you were when the transporting process began. Each of the duplicates claims to be you, but they can't both be right.

 

For if each is identical to you, they are identical to each other, because things identical to the same thing are identical to each other. But these two duplicates are obviously not identical: they are two distinct people. On the other hand, it is very difficult to think of any basis for saying that one of them is you and the other isn't, for any relation to your earlier self that the one has the other has as well. Of course, you could say that neither one is you, but why? Each of them has as much claim to be you as you have after any other transporter journey. What has happened to you?

 

Answers to the puzzles are available on the web. Answers to the paradoxes are not so easy to come by, but you could always take a philosophy course or two and see what you can figure out.

Edited by Alan McDougall
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the second error is that there is only one error.

 

 

 

So there are two errors, then?

 

 

You are in a room with just 2 unmarked doors, one door leads to the hangman and death, the other leads to freedom and life.

There are 2 guards in the room with you, one can only lie the other can only tell the truth. You have no idea which is which.

 

You are allowed just one question to one of the guards, you chose which, by just by asking this one question, you must establish exactly which door is the one leading to freedom or you die

 

3) What is the correct question?.

Suppose you ask the correct question and a guard replies, "The white of the egg is yellow!" Is the question still a correct one? The puzzle doesn't require the guard to reply at all.

 

Well okay the intention of the puzzle (that a guard would answer) is obvious, but surely it's a stretch to assume that the liar will answer a question as helpfully as possible.

 

 

It's not even certain that the guards even know which door is which! Since they're guarding the door, I might presume that neither wants you to go through to freedom. The honest guard could answer "Definitely one or the other."

 

As it's worded here, there are too many assumptions required and the logic kinda falls apart. I think usually it's worded such that a chosen guard will answer one question with yes or no, which takes out most of the possibility of ambiguity.

Edited by md65536
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So there are two errors, then?

 

 

Suppose you ask the correct question and a guard replies, "The white of the egg is yellow!" Is the question still a correct one? The puzzle doesn't require the guard to reply at all.

 

Well okay the intention of the puzzle (that a guard would answer) is obvious, but surely it's a stretch to assume that the liar will answer a question as helpfully as possible.

 

 

It's not even certain that the guards even know which door is which! Since they're guarding the door, I might presume that neither wants you to go through to freedom. The honest guard could answer "Definitely one or the other."

 

As it's worded here, there are too many assumptions required and the logic kinda falls apart. I think usually it's worded such that a chosen guard will answer one question with yes or no, which takes out most of the possibility of ambiguity.

 

The puzzle must be accepted as posed, not skewed by all sorts of possibilities outside the wording and boundaries stated in the original puzzle. Such as the liar deciding to only tell the truth, this defeats the whole objective of the prisoner finding out the right door to go through. Of course the guards must know which door leads to where, how can you mess up the whole idea of this logic question with all those meaningless assumptions?

So, there are two errors, the number and the spare "the".

Perhaps the site needs a new rule

"Please don't post paradoxes"

 

Why cant they post paradoxes, I find them fascinating?

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So, there are two errors, the number and the spare "the".

Perhaps the site needs a new rule

"Please don't post paradoxes"

There is no paradox.

A text consists of 2 things: the text itself (the written symbols) and the meaning.

In this case the 1st error is in the way the symbols are put next to each othe (the grammar syntax), the second error is in the meaning (the statement).

Edited by michel123456
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How many errors are there, and what are they?
Well, there's the stuttered "the": that's one error.

That's easy.

What other errors are ther?

Well, there initially seems to be just one problem- the doubled "the".

So, that's just one error.

But if there's just one error then the assertion that there are two errors is also an error.

In which case there are two errors.

But, if there are two errors then the statement is correct (ignoring the second "the").

In which case, there's only one error.

So it's wrong to say there are two errors, that's a second error (in addition to the twin "the"s).

 

And so on.

It is a paradox.

How many errors are there?

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There is no paradox.

A text consists of 2 things: the text itself (the written symbols) and the meaning.

In this case the 1st error is in the way the symbols are put next to each othe (the grammar syntax), the second error is in the meaning (the statement).

 

Of course it is not a paradox, just a test of how observant one is!

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