Riddle me this,

[Chewett]

[Redacted]

Edited December 18, 2012 by Chewett
Redacted

[Sacosphilz]

Thanks for the correction but that sentence still makes no sense to me. :lol:

A few shots in the dark that should fit the first two sentences:

Vengeance

or

Shadow

, and its enemy is

Light

But they probably have nothing to do with pawns.

[thrall]

i will go with

envie

[Faraday]

Power? Lust? Greed?

[Metal Bunny]

Thanks for the correction but that sentence still makes no sense to me. :lol:

A few shots in the dark that should fit the first two sentences:

Vengeance

or

Shadow

, and its enemy is

Light

But they probably have nothing to do with pawns.

Oh that's real nasty, because you don't understand the riddle, yet guessed the right answer. Kinda like a lottery.

the answer was shadow

Next time I post riddles, they will be riddles that need an explanation, so you can't guess the right word

[Sacosphilz]

Oh that's real nasty, because you don't understand the riddle, yet guessed the right answer. Kinda like a lottery.

the answer was shadow

Next time I post riddles, they will be riddles that need an explanation, so you can't guess the right word

Well, I could give some explanation, but not all.

I am my enemy's creation.

Shadow is casted when there is Light.

Though I'm no longer, when he is gone.

And without Light, there is no Shadow. (only darkness)

I grow stronger, when he moves his pawn. (I'll admit I still have no idea about this one.

For I sadly cannot tread,

Where his gale full bane has shed.

Shadow cannot tread where Light shines upon.

My two guesses fitted the first two lines and, assuming I didn't misinterpret the last line,

Shadow

is the only answer which fits all three lines (not counting the third line), hence my guess.

Riddles are never deterministic. Some riddles are much clearer than others, while some are very ambiguous and depends a lot on what the riddle maker's thinking, so don't feel bad if someone gets the right answer without fully understanding the riddle. It happens. (and hey, at least I got 3 sentences out of 4. ) In this case you could call it informed luck, not blind luck like a lottery.

[Metal Bunny]

In that case you do deserve it

Anyway, the pawn here, means

matter (you could take this further and say they are plants, as they follow the sun, but then you also have to put in that they reproduce, creating more shadow), so when matter moves, shadow moves, and being able to move is a powerfull thing.

Going to put in some different kinds of riddles

An example:

You are standing in a house with just 2 rooms. (yes the house is pover like that) You are in the '3 buttons' room, which has 3 buttons. One of these buttons turns on the lightbulb in the other room. You cannot see in the other room, so you cannot see if you are turning the lightbulb on or off. In this case the lightbulb is off. You are only allowed to go into the 'bulb' room when you are sure you know which button turns on the light.

The question is, how are you able to know what button turns on the light?

And one of my own

'cept they don't rhyme anymore

You come across a man, somewhere in the middle of nowhere, but it is near civilization.

He's like rotting and stuff, and icky grossness and stuff is leaking out of him, along side with insects, gnawing on his scrumptious flesh, so he's dead. He's wearing sunglasses, a leather jacket, a hello kitty backpack, blue jeans, and blue suede shoes . You vehemently refuse to search him, to see what kind of underwear he is wearing, or what kind of socks. I bet it has harts or polka dots on them though. But you are able to guess what is in the backpack without having to grope inside of it, like a greedy little kid trying to get his lollies from some kind of sack, which was offered to him by a strange man in a gray van and when that kid reached in the kid was... uh...

The question is, what is in the backpack?

[Ruin]

Not going to answer the first one because I know the answer and it wouldn't be fair...

For the Second one I'm going to say

Nothing, for the backpack is flat due to it being empty

Edit:

Actually the first one is different from the one I know so I'm not entirely sure the answer is the same, so my answer is:

You press the first button and wait a few minutes, then turn that button off, then press the second button and leave it on. If the first button turns on the light the bulb will be warm to the touch, if it's the second button then the light will be on, if it's the third button the bulb will be cool to the touch since the third button was never pressed. (Well the answer is still kinda the same just only involving one light)

The one I know that's similar to this has three lights instead of one.

By the way, a helpful thing to riddles is to know what type of riddle one is dealing with...The first one, and it seems the second one, are logical thinking riddles...Which in a lot of cases the logic behind them doesn't really make any logical sense...

[Chewett]

[Redacted]

Edited December 18, 2012 by Chewett
Redacted

[Ruin]

Heh Yeah I think it's correct, I am just thrown off a bit since it's a bit different from the one I know.

As for the second riddle I haven't a clue if I am right or wrong lol.

BTW: In case it's not too obvious, I LOVE riddles!

[Sacosphilz]

Here's an old puzzle/riddle. I'm writing it from my memory so it won't be as detailed or as poetic as the original, I also can't recall the names of the characters, but the important bits of the puzzle are intact:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Three prisoners had been convicted of a terrible crime and sentenced to a lifetime in prison. However, the king had decided to give them a chance at a game which could result in either their freedom...... or death.

The king told the following rules of the game to the prisoners one day before the actual game began:

1. As soon as the prisoners are adjourned from his presence, a crown will be chosen for each prisoner. Each crown will be painted either black or white, and the color of each crown will be decided by a flip of the king's favorite coin. The prisoners will never be informed of the colors of the crowns.

2. Before the game begins, the prisoners will be tied up separately at three corners of a courtyard, all facing the center of the courtyard and all with their eyes covered. An armed warden will put the chosen crown on each prisoner's head, and stands guard beside the prisoner.

3. When the game begins, the wardens will uncover each prisoner's eyes, and he will be able to see the crowns on the heads of his two peers, but not the one atop his head. Each prisoner is then allowed a few moments to tell the warden beside him what he thinks the color of his crown is. He may only answer "white" or "black", or refrain from answering. The prisoners are not allowed to look at the crown on their own heads nor use any means to communicate with anyone but the wardens. Any suspicious move by a prisoner would be dealt with swiftly by the warden's blade, and his peers will soon be handed the same fate.

4. When the time is up, the wardens will make gestures signaling the prisoners' answers (or their silence) to each other and to the audience. The fate of the prisoners depend on their answers:

- If at least one prisoner guesses the color of his crown correctly and no prisoner gives a wrong answer, they will all be set free.

- If at least one prisoner gives a wrong answer, they will all be sent to fight the Minotaur barehanded, facing certain death.

- If no prisoner gives any answer at all, they will likewise be sent to death at the hands of the Minotaur.

The king then suggested to the prisoners that if each of them decided to make a blind guess separately, they would only have a 1/8 chance at survival, but if they were smart enough to appoint only one person to make a guess while others remain silent, their chance would improve to 1/2. However, hinted the king, there existed a method which would make their chance of survival even greater than that. What is the method that the king spoke of?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By the way, I'm itching to post a puzzle of my own making here. I prefer puzzles to riddles since they are more straightforward, but many people dislike puzzles because they can be flavorless and unforgiving. The puzzle I want to post is one such bland and cruel puzzle (unless you really, really, really love numbers). Would it be okay?

EDIT: just fixed some typos

[Morrel]

Nice riddle

Only the prisoner who sees 2 black crowns or two white ones answers the question?

Their chance would improve to 2/3 I think....

[Sacosphilz]

Nice riddle

Only the prisoner who sees 2 black crowns or two white ones answers the question?

Their chance would improve to 2/3 I think....

Please be a bit more specific, e.g. who does what in which condition, etc.

I think you've mostly figured it out, only the number isn't correct yet.

EDIT: Here's another similar one, but it's much shorter and easier:

There was a television game show where the winning contestant gets to play the "jackpot round". Details of the jackpot round is as follows:

The contestant is presented with three doors. Behind one of those three doors lies the prize, the "jackpot", while behind the other two doors are empty. The contestant have no clue which door holds the jackpot, but the host secretly knows it in advance.

The host will first ask the contestant to choose a door, but that door will not be opened yet. Instead, the host will walk to another door and open it, showing that it is empty, then the host will ask the contestant again whether he/she wants to change his/her choice to the other unopened door. After the contestant has made his/her choice (for the second time), he/she will walk to the chosen door while the host walks to the remaining door, then they will open both doors simultaneously to reveal the content within.

The question is: If you were the contestant, would you change your choice when asked the second time? Why? (The important part is the "Why?" )

[Metal Bunny]

@ Ruin, the answer to the first riddle is correct The 2nd answer is wrong,

you have to think about the man's death, because there is something strange about it , if that wasn't obvious before

Yay riddles, lol

@ The first riddle.

The answer is that, necessarily, there are 3 hats of equal color, or 2 hats of equal and 1 of a different color, but in this case it is of no consequence, because, unlike other black and white hat riddles (there are soooo many out there), they are not allowed to signal each other. The prisoners have to make an agreement with each other. When asked what they 'think' the color is of their hat, they give the color of the person left of him. Simple as that. That is of course under the assumption that everybody is dead silent and the other prisoners can hear the other prisoners non-definitive answer to the warden, and that the first answer when the blindfold is removed is non definitive

@ 2nd riddle.

You should switch, always switch. If the contestants switch every time, one of

two things happens: With 2/3 probability the contestant picks a wrong door in the start. The host shows the 'nothing' prize behind the other wrong door, and the contestant switches to the door hiding the prize. With 1/3 probability, the contestant picks the right door, the host reveals then a wrong door and the contestant switches to the other 'nothing' prize.

So, with a probability of 2/3, the "switch" strategy will elicit the jackpot.

[Sacosphilz]

@Light&Switch riddle: I already knew the answer to the riddle, and I didn't figure it out myself, so no point in answering. (And I don't think the number of light bulbs really matters.)

@Dead man riddle: I think I've heard a similar one before, and the answer was something along the lines of

a malfunctioned parachute

, but who would put that in a Hello Kitty backpack?

@Metal Bunny's answers:

You nailed the 2nd riddle right on. Good job!

The answer to the 1st riddle still isn't right though. Let me cut the long story short and add another assumption that the wardens are quicker and smarter than you, so don't try to cheat.

[Morrel]

ok, second try to the crown riddle...

they agree before that...

Prisoner 1 only answers black if the other crowns are both black

Prisoner 2 only answers white if the other crowns are both white

Prisoner 3 does the same as prisoner 1 or 2 if he sees the same color, if he sees two different ones he'll keep his mouth (but he does have to answer if he sees two the same becouse he doesn't know what the others saw)

There are 4 possible combinations if they agree to do it this way...

-Black, black ,black

-White, white, white

-black, black, white

-white, white, black

if the correct answer is black, 1 and 3 wil be wrong if:

answer is black, black, white

they have eliminated the 3 other possible answers as wrong ones (3 black= correct, 2 white+1black = no answer, 3 white= no answer)

if the correct answer is white 2 and 3 wil be wrong if

answer white, white, black...

So, becouse the 2 possible wrongs are independent from eachther, we can't just add them together...

So my new guess is that thet have a 3 in 4 chanche to get out alive....

Pfff (no diploma's on my wall like Metal Bunny )

so i'm not so sure on the math, but I think i'm getting closer ...

[Ruin]

>_< Crap ok the backpack riddle threw me off with it's description being a Hello Kitty backpack...even with it being called a backpack it threw me off cause when I think of Hello Kitty I think of the strange people around my area that wear the shoulder packs that rest at the hip...I knew this one's answer too..

@Sacophilz: Yeah the number of Lightbulbs don't really matter. And for your first puzzle, I want to answer it but I've not the time to lol

[Akasha]

WOW u didn't stop with the spoiler...

[Metal Bunny]

I love it when people fall for that hello kitty thing,

and yes, it is a malfunctioning parachute hehehehe

And it seems I took the wrong presumptions, as the warden is some kind of midget god of anti-cheating.

In that case.

I have the nasty suspicion that this riddle is unsolvable, as it is nigh impossible to get a higher percentage than 75% as described by morrel, because I can't get any closer either . Because you are not allowed to give each other hints during the questionare and there is no fixed number of hats in this test

Also ***edit***

The riddle also becomes harder, because if one gives a wrong answer, they're all screwed, meaning that they can't 'sacrifice' one guy to save the rest.

And you can always go ahead and post riddles and puzzles, it's an open forum

[Sacosphilz]

ok, second try to the crown riddle...

they agree before that...

Prisoner 1 only answers black if the other crowns are both black

Prisoner 2 only answers white if the other crowns are both white

Prisoner 3 does the same as prisoner 1 or 2 if he sees the same color, if he sees two different ones he'll keep his mouth (but he does have to answer if he sees two the same becouse he doesn't know what the others saw)

There are 4 possible combinations if they agree to do it this way...

-Black, black ,black

-White, white, white

-black, black, white

-white, white, black

if the correct answer is black, 1 and 3 wil be wrong if:

answer is black, black, white

they have eliminated the 3 other possible answers as wrong ones (3 black= correct, 2 white+1black = no answer, 3 white= no answer)

if the correct answer is white 2 and 3 wil be wrong if

answer white, white, black...

So, becouse the 2 possible wrongs are independent from eachther, we can't just add them together...

So my new guess is that thet have a 3 in 4 chanche to get out alive....

Pfff (no diploma's on my wall like Metal Bunny )

so i'm not so sure on the math, but I think i'm getting closer ...

With the method you described, the chance that the prisoners will survive will be less than 1/2, so it is not the correct answer.

I'll let you figure out why, but here's a Morrel-specific hint:

It's good that you're writing things down and counting things in order to solve this riddle (the numbers aren't too big to count, promised ) but are you sure

that you're counting the right things

?

@Metal Bunny: The riddle is solvable alright. As for the "numbers", I'm not going to say which one is right and which one isn't until a correct method is posted, then the number will come naturally. Giving away that number without explanation can be too big as a hint, and the riddle specifically asks for the method anyway.

[Chewett]

[Redacted]

Edited December 18, 2012 by Chewett
Redacted

[Ruin]

See with that type of riddle/puzzle it is very inflexible, though if you think of this in a kinda warped way, if the prisoners take the king hostage and ransom their freedom their chances at surviving the crown ordeal is 100%

[Sacosphilz]

Right here is the theory, but i didnt say it was correct

no one speaks unless they see two of the same color. if they see two of the same color they say the oppersite color. there is a 37.5% chance that there will be two colors and one oppersite. as there is two combinations you could have BBW or WWB there is two 37.5% chances

so if one person sees two of the same they say the oppersite color as there if a 75% chance of getting the combinations BBW or WWB

Right, that's the correct method. You also got the number correct.

A few key points to this riddle:

1.

The riddle didn't ask for a sure way for the prisoners to survive, just a way that has better chance then 50%.

2.

The colors of the crowns are selected at random ("by a flip of the king's favorite coin"), so one way to approach this riddle (and the right one) is to explore and exploit the possible results of 3 coin flips.

3.

There are 8 possible outcomes from flipping a coin 3 times.

(WWW, WWB, WBW, WBB, BWW, BWB, BBW, BBB)

6 out of 8 possible outcomes result in 2 crowns of the same color and another crown of a different color. Finding and exploiting this common majority will get you the answer to the riddle.

more please i love maths stuff

I was waiting for this.

Now, I wouldn't call the problem below a riddle or a puzzle since it's obviously just one big math problem. It's neither flexible nor artistic, just a math freak's piece of mind. Please don't flame me if it is not to your taste.

Here it goes:

Given 4 "starting numbers" and 1 "target number", you are to add, subtract, multiply and/or divide the starting numbers to yield the target number, under the following rules:

- Each starting number must be used exactly once, no more, no less. (If some starting numbers are identical, then they must be used exactly that many times)

- The starting numbers must be used as individual numbers and not concatenated into other numbers. (i.e. one plus two does NOT make a twelve)

- Each of the add, subtract, multiply and divide functions may be used any number of times or not used at all.

- Other functions (such as power, roots, logarithm, etc.) are not allowed.

For example, given the following setting:

1,2,3,4 -> 10

then some of the possible solutions are:

1+2+3+4 = 10

(3*4) - (1*2) = 10

(1*2*3) + 4 = 10

(3 - (1/2)) * 4 = 10

etc., etc.

Those are the rules, now onto the real question...

Given the following settings...

1,2,8,9 -> 76

1,4,5,6 -> 24

1,4,7,8 -> 58

1,4,8,9 -> 74

1,6,7,8 -> 24

1,7,8,9 -> 36

2,4,6,8 -> 51

3,3,8,8 -> 24

3,4,7,8 -> 10

3,6,6,9 -> 22

Try to find a solution for each setting......

And as if that's not challenging enough, one of them is unsolvable. Don't fall into that trap.

(Credits: One of the given settings has been sent to me by a friend, and another one is taken from "Professor Layton and the Curious Village" (Nintendo DS). The rest are inspired by those two settings and came from my twisted mind.)

Concerted effort is welcome.

However, in case any of you are a programmer, please try to solve it yourself first before writing a program. There are less than 4,000 ways to tinker with 4 numbers and 4 type of functions, and your program would solve all this before you can even blink, but where's the fun in that?

[Grido]

because the closest i can get to any of those targets is one off (i've half way down the list) though i'm not trying that hard admittedly

a logic puzzle, which i might add a few of you will already know as i havent changed it apart from adding the odd detail, so dont spoil it for those that dont know the answer

You are in a room, the room has two doors, one at either end, the doors are both closed and as soon as you open either one it will pull you through the doorway(in other words no peeking to see). One door leads to certain death, the other to a return to your life. Standing in the room with you are two 'beings' one of which can only lie, the other can only tell the truth, but you dont know which one is which, and to add a little irrelevant detail, they're both wearing identical flowing black robes. The question is this, what one question would you ask the 'beings' to ensure that you picked the correct dor to return to your life? They both answer the same question and you can only ask one.

*EDIT sp i spotted, and in case you want to visualise http://xkcd.com/246/

[Metal Bunny]

Lol, the math problem is kinda neat, but sucks up to much time

@ Grido, the version I know is the cannibal village and the village of eternal bliss .

The answer is to ask a question which depends on a relative fact. I will be assuming they are not emo's with suicidal tendencies. If not then the question you should ask is: 'What door would you choose?' If so then the question you should ask is: 'What door leads to your death?'

I remembered a riddle of my own, but I'll post it later or edit into this one.