41 replies to this topic

[rookie1ja]

This riddle doesn't include any question! The tale is nice, but what's the problem?

The only thing I can do is guess that you want to hear what the tale means:

Here goes:
There were exactly 40 married couples in Mamajorca. Each night since the proclamation, every man slept with another woman than his own, and with another than any of the nights before. On the 40th night, they all came home to sleep with their own wives and were exterminated, thereby dooming the future of Mamajorca, because there would be no more offspring!


BoilingOil

OK ... I guess I have to amend my attitude ... so I will assume that users of my forum can not always find implied questions and they have to be led like little children ... I have moved the questions to the wording of the puzzle

[BoilingOil]

OK ... I guess I have to amend my attitude ... so I will assume that users of my forum can not always find implied questions and they have to be led like little children ... I have moved the questions to the wording of the puzzle

It's not as bad as you make it sound now... "BoilingOil" is not "users of your forum". He's only ONE idiot who sometimes doesn't even see the OBVIOUS

[ghici_cn]

here is how I see it:
let's suppose there were five cheeting husbands
Wife no5 knows that there are 4 hsbands who cheat and she thinks that Wife no4 only knows about 3 and that she thinks Wife no3 only know about 2... but it's a nonsense to think that any wife in town would believe there are only 2 or 3 unfaithful husbands when in fact there are 5 and all the wives whose husbands cheat on them believe there are 4. So I don't think you can tidy up the induction to 40.
So I think the solution of the puzzle is that every wife asked other wives how many unfathful husbands did they know and if the number was higher than the number they knew, it would mean that their husbands are cheaters too.

[Jeremy]

one guy was shot. he was sleaping with a lot of the women and all of them found out the same time then shot him. the queen found out it was her husband.

[al_rawi]

Hmm.
how about the wives asking the other men in the village about their husbands? The riddle only talks about wives not allowed to ask other women!

Well, I have to admit that I kind of hunched there was a more "logical" answer, but I stuck to mine :-). (in case ur wondering if the other men would give their friend away so easily, well, I guess they will with a gun pointing to their head :-))

[YoavBa]

Josephine - Back to the Logic Puzzles
It is easy to tidy up the induction to show that the n UHs will all be shot just on the n'th midnight.[/spoiler]

It's impossible to "tidy up the induction..." because your logic is absolutly WRONG!!!!!!

If anyone think i'm wrong i would like to see him do it for only 5 unfaithfull husbands!!

btw. i dont know the real answer and if it really exists

[rookie1ja]

Josephine - Back to the Logic Puzzles
It is easy to tidy up the induction to show that the n UHs will all be shot just on the n'th midnight.

It's impossible to "tidy up the induction..." because your logic is absolutly WRONG!!!!!!

If anyone think i'm wrong i would like to see him do it for only 5 unfaithfull husbands!!

btw. i dont know the real answer and if it really exists

the logic is absolutely correct ... below is explanation for 1 and 2 unfaithful husbands ... apply the same logic and you will see that if there were 5 unfaithful husbands then all 5 would be shot the 5th night

Spoiler for Solution

Josephine - solution
The two questions for scroll #1 were:
1. How many husbands were shot on that fateful night?
2. Why is Queen Henrietta I revered in Mamajorca?
The answers are:
If there are n unfaithful husbands (UHs), every wife of an UH knows of n-1 UH's while every wife of a faithful husband knows of n UHs. [this because everyone has perfect information about everything except the fidelity of their own husband]. Now we do a simple induction: Assume that there is only one UH. Then all the wives but one know that there is just one UH, but the wife of the UH thinks that everyone is faithful. Upon hearing that "there is at least one UH", the wife realizes that the only husband it can be is her own, and so shoots him. Now, imagine that there are just two UH's. Each wife of an UH assumes that the situation is "only one UH in town" and so waits to hear the other wife (she knows who it is, of course) shoot her husband on the first night. When no one is shot, that can only be because her OWN husband was a second UH. The wife of the second UH makes the same deduction when no shot is fired the first night (she was waiting, and expecting the other to shoot, too). So they both figure it out after the first night, and shoot their husbands the second night. It is easy to tidy up the induction to show that the n UHs will all be shot just on the n'th midnight.

[ghici_cn]

This is not a proper answer, you just repeated the solution given in the first place!
Yes, the explanation goes well for 1 and 2, unfaithfull husbands, but I'd like to see anyone doing it for only 5 like, I said before!
IT IS IMPOSSSIBLE to assume that if the truth is that there are 40 UHs anyone would think that there were 2 or 3 UHs!

[rookie1ja]

This is not a proper answer, you just repeated the solution given in the first place!
Yes, the explanation goes well for 1 and 2, unfaithfull husbands, but I'd like to see anyone doing it for only 5 like, I said before!
IT IS IMPOSSSIBLE to assume that if the truth is that there are 40 UHs anyone would think that there were 2 or 3 UHs!

yes - I repeated the solution, since I assumed that it is clear ... I will try to take it a step further ...

so let's assume that I am a wife and I know that there are 3 UH's

1st night
Let's see if all 3 UH's will be shot ... but nothing happens ... I could have known that ... I guess that each of the 3 wives expected 2 shots ... hmmm, maybe the next night

2nd night
let's wait what happens ... I guess that each of the 3 wives is anxiously awaiting the 2 shots now ... I imagine that one of them might think as follows: "I know there are 2 UH's. They were not shot the first night, since both of the 2 wives thought that there is just 1 UH. So this 2nd night both of them must kill their UH's. What the ...? I hear no shots. And now I know why - not only those 2, but also I do have an UH. We'll shoot them the 3rd night" ... I think that is the way one of the 3 wives might have thought

3rd night
I'll open the window ... time is ticking away and then I hear something ... nope, was just some cat outside ... what is going on here? no shots? it is morning already ... the wives must have thought the way I imagined it ... unless ... wait a minute ... each of them does not know 2 UH's but 3 of them ... so there are 4 UH's? ... but who is the 4th one???
oh noooooo ... where is my gun ...

[twisteddragon]

i think u hit it right on the money there. It was hard to follow but i see where your coming from.