[Guest]

In a museum, there were these pictures on the wall, of great heroes and nationalists displayed for all visitors to see. One day, John went to the museum and had the opportunity to go from one picture to the other, reading about the achievements of each of these great men and women hanging on the wall and taking notes. However, when he got to where one particular picture was, he took more than a casual interest in it, as he stared at it earnestly for over 30mins. While he was at it, Harry came in and noticed the interest with which John was looking at the picture and was thus prompted to ask, "who is that" Harry asked John, pointing at the same picture.

In reply, John said,

"Brothers and sisters I have none, but this man's father is my father's son"

Now if you are Harry, who's picture was John looking at?

[rookie1ja]

this one is a classic ... I have posted a variation on it ... check puzzle entitled photograph

keeping thread open for a while

[Guest]

In a museum, there were these pictures on the wall, of great heroes and nationalists displayed for all visitors to see. One day, John went to the museum and had the opportunity to go from one picture to the other, reading about the achievements of each of these great men and women hanging on the wall and taking notes. However, when he got to where one particular picture was, he took more than a casual interest in it, as he stared at it earnestly for over 30mins. While he was at it, Harry came in and noticed the interest with which John was looking at the picture and was thus prompted to ask, "who is that" Harry asked John, pointing at the same picture.

In reply, John said,

"Brothers and sisters I have none, but this man's father is my father's son"

Now if you are Harry, who's picture was John looking at?

Harry was looking at John

[grey cells]

In a museum, there were these pictures on the wall, of great heroes and nationalists displayed for all visitors to see. One day, John went to the museum and had the opportunity to go from one picture to the other, reading about the achievements of each of these great men and women hanging on the wall and taking notes. However, when he got to where one particular picture was, he took more than a casual interest in it, as he stared at it earnestly for over 30mins. While he was at it, Harry came in and noticed the interest with which John was looking at the picture and was thus prompted to ask, "who is that" Harry asked John, pointing at the same picture.

In reply, John said,

"Brothers and sisters I have none, but this man's father is my father's son"

Now if you are Harry, who's picture was John looking at?

John is looking at the picture of his son

[Guest]

he was looking at himsrlf

[Guest]

Grey cells is right. his fathers son is himself, which is he second part, and the first part is this mans father, who is himself.

[bonanova]

Now if you are Harry, who's whose picture was John looking at?

Since I'm not Harry, John was of course contemplating the Mona Lisa.

[Guest]

couldnt it also be his brother?

[abhisk]

No, it cant be his brother because he said that he doesn't have any brothers.

[Guest]

my bad

i didnt read that part

[Guest]

His son.

[Guest]

John's son.

[Guest]

his son, I heard this one in high school, about 10 years ago. I'm always amazed at the answers people give me when I ask them to solve this riddle. They always come up with some crazy response,"his step dad" and so on and so on.

Edited March 24, 2008 by misticmeth

[Guest]

I really think that Harry was looking at John.

To solve this problem I emphasized the sentence at the end

"Brothers and sisters I have none, but this man's father is my father's son"

Now if you are Harry, who's picture was John looking at?

That part is pretty obvious you see

a=the person in the painting

b=father of person in the painting

c=John's Father

d=John

put them all together and you will get John as your answer

I think and hope :0

[itachi-san]

his son

[bonanova]

Not to repeat my answer, but ...

A false premise permits a false conclusion.

"If A then B" is logically equivalent to "^A or B".

If A is false, ^A is true, and the conjunction is true.

Thus, "If 2+2=5, then New York is a small city"

Since I'm not Harry, and the premise is "if you are Harry," I choose the Mona Lisa.

Well, she is intriguing, if not actually "hot".

[itachi-san]

I think you're stretching that logic. It says 'if you are Harry'. It might as well say 'if you are person B'. It's not really correct to respond with 'I'm not Harry', when the setup for the answer is 'if you are Harry'.