[rookie1ja]

Family - Back to the River Crossing Puzzles
Parents with two children - a son and a daughter - came to a wide river. There was no bridge there. The only way to get to the other side was to ask a fisherman if he could lend them his boat. However, the boat could carry only one adult or two children. How does the family get to the other side and return the boat to the fisherman?

Spoiler for Solution:

Family - solution
First go the children. Son comes back, and father goes on the other side to his daughter. Then daughter goes back to pick her brother up and they both go to the other side to the father. Son comes back to give the boat to mother who goes to the other side (to father and daughter). Daughter jumps in and goes to her brother so they can both return to their parents. Daughter gets off and son gives the boat back on the first side of the river to the fisherman, who goes on the other side. There the daughter jumps in and goes to her brother to take him back to parents where she (where the whole family meets at last) returns the boat to the fisherman. The boat crossed the river 13 times.

Spoiler for old wording:

Adult parents with two little children - a son and a daughter - came to a wide river. There was no bridge there. The only way to get to the other side was to ask an adult fisherman if he could lend them his boat. However, the boat could carry only one adult or two children. How does the family get to the other side and return the boat to the fisherman?

[ardwinmj]

yea that was good but isn't the fisherman an adult

[mr_pitcher_44]

Quote

yea that was good but isn't the fisherman an adult

It doesn't say he is an adult. he could still be a child

[fosley]

It doesn't matter if he's a child. The solution acts like he's an adult; if he was a child you could just skip two steps.

At one point, the family is on one side of the river with the boat and the fisherman is on the other side of the river. Now, the son takes the boat back to the fisherman and gets off. The fisherman leaves the son and crosses the river. The fisherman gets out and the daughter gets in. The daughter crosses the river, the son gets in with her, and they return to the far side. At this point, everybody is on the far side with the boat, so the fisherman takes his boat and leaves the family all standing on the far side.

[NID151]

Why didn't they all just swim across in the first place?

[larryhl]

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Why didn't they all just swim across in the first place?

lol, no point in being a logic puzzle then.

[ioannaIMme`]

the fisherman is an adult cause it says, fisherman.

[ggsarah]

ha it sure wud have been a lot quicker for them all to just swim and left the fishermans boat alone

[jmo]

Why didn't the fisherman just take them over one at a time?

[colorclown26]

Yeah. the fishermen should have takin them over one at a time