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Truth in packaging II

bonanova

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bonanova Grand Master

bonanova

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Three boxes are all labeled incorrectly, but you must determine their contents, nevertheless.
The labels on the boxes read as follows:

[box 1] gold coins
[box 2] silver coins
[box 3] gold coins or silver coins

To gain the information you need to determine the contents of each box,
you may remove a single item from one of the boxes. You may not look
into the boxes, nor pick them up and shake them, etc.

Can this be done? If so, how? If not, why not?

Wait. That was the old puzzle.
The rules have been changed.

You can't open any of the boxes.
You can't remove any item from any of the boxes.
You can't even touch any of the boxes.

Wait.
You're also told that the boxes all contain coins of a single type: gold, silver or bronze.

Edit:

No two of the boxes have the same contents.

Edited by bonanova
Specify the contents are unique
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Guest

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ALL LABELLED INCORRECTLY..So...

Box 3 must contain Bronze...as others are also wrongly labelled...swap them!!

SO result:

[box 1] Silver

[box 2] Gold

[box 3] Bronze

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Answer time ...

For the labels all to be wrong,

box 3 cannot contain either gold coins or silver coins; it contains the bronze.

box 1 cannot contain the gold coins; it contains the silver.

box 2 cannot contain the silver coins; it contains the gold.

Definitely. Before reading your answer, I was stuck assuming that they were all mislabeled as bronze, silver, or gold.

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rhey just did this one but with screws and nails- take one out of the gold anad silver- lbel it correct then switch the labels of others of the one - so if a silver coin comes out of the silver and gold- silver it. the box that had silver label is now gold and the original gold one is silver and gold

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bonanova Grand Master

bonanova

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rhey just did this one but with screws and nails- take one out of the gold anad silver- lbel it correct then switch the labels of others of the one - so if a silver coin comes out of the silver and gold- silver it. the box that had silver label is now gold and the original gold one is silver and gold

Read the last line of the OP - this is a different puzzle.

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My 40% of a nickel...

I think the disconnection comes in that people allow you to change the rules without changing the labels...

Since the three boxes are labeled incorrectly

[box 1] gold coins (Can be silver or bronze)

[box 2] silver coins (Can be gold or bronze)

[box 3] gold coins or silver coins (Cannot be gold or silver)

If [box 3] cannot be gold or silver, it must contain bronze. Since bronze coins cannot be present in more than one box, the boxes have contents as follows:

[box 1] = silver

[box 2] = gold

[box 3] = bronze

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I don't think this is possible as stated. You should change the "rules". Merely stating that every box is labeled incorrectly says nothing about that those labels are the only labels possible. For example, suppose that all three boxes have bronze coins in them, or that perhaps one of the boxes is a mix of bronze and gold coins. The rules don't state that either is impossible. Therefore, it is impossible to determine how the boxes should be labeled based upon the rules presented.

In math terms, with 3 coins possible, there are actually 7 possibilities for the contents of each box (assuming each box must contain at least one item). Merely taking one coin out of exactly one box tells you nothing about the other two. There is no guarantee of mutually independent events here.

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Not within the parameters of the puzzle.

Not true. The puzzle is specifically talking to the reader by saying "You". Hence, you can and may ask someone else to asses whats inside the boxes.

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Boy, did you screw this up. Coercive logic is hard enough without mixing up the relevent facts and restrictions. Can we remove an item or not? Are they gold, silver, and a combination; or are they gold silver and bronze? Did you ever hear of proofreading before submission?

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Boy, did you screw this up. Coercive logic is hard enough without mixing up the relevent facts and restrictions. Can we remove an item or not? Are they gold, silver, and a combination; or are they gold silver and bronze? Did you ever hear of proofreading before submission?

Hmmm - Bonanova is too nice of a fellow to provide retort on this, so I will. If you notice, he has over 1500 posts on this forum. Not only does he provide some of the most insightful answers, he creates some of the most challenging and fun riddles on this site. On top of that, he writes them in a way for all to understand. If you are incapable of comprehending this sort of puzzle, you have two options: 1. politely ask for elucidation, 2. go to website www.stuff-for-whiny-3-year-olds.com. BUT, since it appears to be a combination, I'll address your questions:

"Can we remove an item or not?"

"You can't open any of the boxes.

You can't remove any item from any of the boxes.

You can't even touch any of the boxes."

That was located in the original post - I can see why you were confused (not really, actually)

"Are they gold, silver, and a combination; or are they gold silver and bronze?"

"You're also told that the boxes all contain coins of a single type: gold, silver or bronze."

Once again, that was in the original post. Once again, very hard to understand (eye roll).

LASTLY, my favorite part,

"Did you ever hear of proofreading before submission?"

haha...hahahahaha...HAHAHAHAHAHA.

Spinetta, at least you can write halfway coherently. Next time incorporate some reading skills equivalent to those of a toddler and your writing will be relevant to the topic at hand.

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"Are they gold, silver, and a combination; or are they gold silver and bronze?"

"You're also told that the boxes all contain coins of a single type: gold, silver or bronze."

Once again, that was in the original post. Once again, very hard to understand (eye roll).

For someone so condescending, you should really consider what the person is asking...

They're wondering if the labels still read "Gold, Silver, and a Combination" or if they now read "Gold, Silver, and Bronze" since the original poster tacked on the Gold, silver, and bronze segment at the end, on an already existing puzzle, to which his first addendum had already changed a stated part of the puzzle.

It was a legitimate question, and certainly not something that should have been mocked.

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I have the solutions

1- as we may get one coin from one of the boxes, I will get a coin from box 3. This box ia labeled as "Gold or Silver", and since it is wrongly labled, then the box is either Gold or Silver. So, the Box will have the type of the picked coin. Suppose the coin is Gold, then the actual content of this box is Gold.

2- turn to the box labled as Silver, box 2. This box is of course not Silver (wrong labled) and it is not also Gold (becasue we just discovered the Gold box in step 1 above), then it must be the box of "Gold and Silver".

3- Then, of course the remaining box (box 1) is actually the Silver box. The proof is that it can not be the Gold one (worng labled and we already dicovered the Gold box in step 1) and it can not be "Gold and Silver" (becasue we also discovered this box in step 2). Then it is the silver one.

simply !! :huh:

hesham

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Three boxes are all labeled incorrectly, but you must determine their contents, nevertheless.

The labels on the boxes read as follows:

[box 1] gold coins

[box 2] silver coins

[box 3] gold coins or silver coins

To gain the information you need to determine the contents of each box,

you may remove a single item from one of the boxes. You may not look

into the boxes, nor pick them up and shake them, etc.

Can this be done? If so, how? If not, why not?

Wait. That was the old puzzle.

The rules have been changed.

You can't open any of the boxes.

You can't remove any item from any of the boxes.

You can't even touch any of the boxes.

Wait.

You're also told that the boxes all contain coins of a single type: gold, silver or bronze.

I can't touch the boxes or open them or even take a coin out......so all I have to go on are the signs. So I think this is the answer. Box#3 is niether gold or silver becuase the sign is labeled wrong. Box#3 is bronze, Box#1 silver , Box#2 gold by elimination.

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FIRST PUZZLE: Yes - take a coin from a box say the box marked silver/gold. If the coin is gold then the box is 1) the gold box (since it had been labelled incorrectly). The box marked silver must be the mix box and the box marked silver/gold will be the silver box.

SECOND PUZZLE: No. There are always two possibilities for each box.

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For the first part of the puzzle:

Since ALL the labels are wrong, that means that you first start in the third box and which ever it contains is that coin. For example: if you picked up a gold coin in box #3, that label should be switched to gold.

Then the other boxes should be either: #1-GS+S, #2GS+S. When you pick from the next box, should it say silver and you pick up silver, then you know for sure that it is the gold and silver box because in the beginning, ALL labels were wrong.

Box Label Coin Correct Label

1. - Gold - Silver - Silver

2. - Silver - Silver - G+S

3. - G+S - Gold - Gold

Start with the third box to correct a label, then work from there.

Edited by Chrono Shadow
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And for the second part, which mostly everyone got already:

Box #1 is labeled gold, Box #2 is labeled silver, and Box #3 is labeled Either. Since there is a bronze now, it would have to be in third box because if the label is wrong, then NEITHER gold nor silver can be in there. So the end results are:

Box Label Coin

1 - Gold - Silver

2 - Silver - Gold

3 - G+S - Bronze

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Krishna Kutty Apprentice

Krishna Kutty

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Package 1 says gold.Since ALL are labelled incorrectly, it is either silver or bronze.

Package 2 says silver.This, too is wrong.So it has either gold or bronze.

Package 3 says gold or silver.This is wrong, saying us that it contains bronze coins.

So, ruling out bronze from package 1 and 2,

Package 1 has silver coins and package 2 has gold coins.

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