A Mensa Problem: Answer

"caryle clear" (cpcj@sprynet.com)
Wed, 29 Oct 1997 09:38:45 -0500


| Answer: (drum roll, please)
| The question to ask is:
| 
| "What will the other man tell me to do to get to freedom?"
| 
| If you try this between man "A" being the "Truth" and man "B" being
"liar" and
| "A" standing at destruction and "B" at freedom, you will get this
scenario:

Great, but you have no way to know who is lying and who is telling the
truth.

| "A" will answer "He will tell you to use my door", and "B" will answer
"He
| will tell you to use his door".  Remember now, they are telling you what
the
| other will say.
| 
| Based on their answers, you need to do something.  That is, Do the
OPPOSITE
| of what they said.
| 
| You can switch the men around at the different doors, and it will still
come
| out the same.  You need to do the opposite of the answers given.

The answer you gave makes sense, but I can't agree that this is the BEST
answer or the ONLY answer to this problem.  Even those with high IQs
(members of Mensa) will come up with different *workable* solutions to the
exact same problem.

On the "logic puzzles" webpage,
http://einstein.et.tudelft.nl/~arlet/puzzles/logic.html (organized by a
member of Mensa), there is a similar puzzle:
>>>
Two men stand at a fork in the road. One fork leads to Someplaceorother;
the other fork leads to Nowheresville. One of these people always answers
the truth to any yes/no question which is asked of him. The other always
lies when asked any yes/no question. By asking one yes/no question, can you
determine the road to Someplaceorother?<<<

Their solution was this:
>>>
The fact that there are two is a red herring - you only need one of either
type. You ask him the following question: "If I were to ask you if the left
fork leads to Someplaceorother, would you say 'yes'?" 

If the person asked is a truthteller, he will answer "yes" if the left fork
leads to Someplaceorother, and "no" otherwise. But so will the liar. So,
either way, go left is the answer is "yes", and right otherwise. 

It is possible, of course, that the liars are malicious, and they will tell
the truth if they figure out that you are trying to trick them.<<<

The only difference here is that no particular man is associated with any
particular fork.

To make *my* question work, all I have to do is qualify it as a yes/no
question and 
it works just fine in the scenario.  There can be more than one *workable*
solution to this problem.

I'd just change :"Would person B say that door A leads to freedom?" to 
"Yes or no, would person B say that door A leads to freedom?" and it works.
I would still find out the truth and the correct door, which I would then,
of course enter.

When you replied to me you failed to say precisely what was *wrong* with my
question, even though it did not match the one you had (although I think
Bro. Brown brought up the "I don't know" scenario which is eliminated
above).  

Therefore, I don't see anything wrong with what I answered! :)


Anneliese