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Pandora's Box I.


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Pandora's Box I. - Back to the Logic Problems

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Pandora, who wanted a bright groom so she made up a few logic problems for the wannabe. This is one of them.

Based upon the inscriptions on the boxes (none or just one of them is true), choose one box where the wedding ring is hidden.

Golden box

The ring is in this box.

Silver box

The ring is not in this box.

Lead box

The ring is not in the golden box.

This old topic is locked since it was answered many times. You can check solution in the Spoiler below.

Pls visit New Puzzles section to see always fresh brain teasers.

Pandora's Box I. - solution

The given conditions indicate that only the inscription on the lead box is true. So the ring is in the silver box.

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  • 4 weeks later...

um, shouldnt it be lead box? since either only 1 lie, or all of the boxes lie. so if gold is lying then its in the lead box because silver says : the ring is not in this box. if they were all lying, then the puzzle would be unsolvable because lead would say the ring is in golden box and golden would say its not

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Instead of asking which box is lying, I asked "what if the ring was in X box" for each box, and I made a little truth table:

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

|		 | Gold	   | Silver		 | Lead		  |			 |

|		 | Ring here  | Ring not here  | Ring not gold | Total True  |

|---------+------------+----------------+---------------+-------------|

| Gold	|	 T	  |	   T		|	   F	   |	  2	  |

|---------+------------+----------------+---------------+-------------|

| Silver  |	 F	  |	   F		|	   T	   |	  1	  |

|---------+------------+----------------+---------------+-------------|

| Lead	|	 F	  |	   T		|	   T	   |	  2	  |

|---------+------------+----------------+---------------+-------------|

| None	|	 F	  |	   T		|	   T	   |	  2	  |

|---------------------------------------------------------------------|

The left column is showing which box we're testing. The next column is whether the inscription on the Gold box is true if the ring is in a given box, then Silver and Lead inscriptions. Finally, we have how many inscriptions are true. There is only one possible answer--it can't even be in none of the boxes. Edit: The only answer is that it's in the silver box, because it's the only one with 0 or 1 true inscriptions (the other 3 options have too many true inscriptions).

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There is only one possible answer--it can't even be in none of the boxes.

You might have overlooked the most important condition - none or just one of the inscriptions is true. And your table indicates the same conclusion - ring is in the silver box.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 4 weeks later...
  • 3 months later...

Now this is alot of reading, but I tried to explain this as best as I could

through my method, then taking fosley's table and putting it up against an inverse

table I did while explaining them.

I got my answer by working it in the form of an If statement.

It's a bit different than the actual programming lauguage since

I don't believe there is anything with .Statement as an ending...

If you read think about it, this does work since the lines coding

are just line of logic. It may be long, but I like If Statements.

		goldenBox.Statement = "The ring is in this box"

		silverBox.Statement = "The ring is not in this box"

		leadBox.Statement = "The ring is not in the golden box"

		trueStatements.Statement = False

		oneTrue.Statement = False ' Gets set to true if first If

									 ' statement doesn't work. 


	If trueStatements.statements = False then

		goldenBox.Statement = False

		silverBox.Statement = False

		leadBox.Statement  = False

			' But, if leadBox.Statement is False

			' then goldenBox.Statement would be True.

			' Yet that would cause a conflict

			' if all statements are False so that

			' means one satatement is True.

		MessageBox.Show("This is improbable.", "Logic Error",

		MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error)


		oneTrue.Statement = True

	End If


	If oneTrue.statement = True then

		If goldenBox.Statement = True Then

			silverBox.Statement = False

			leadBox.Statement = False

				' This is not possible because if

				' silverBox.Statement is False then

				' the ring would be in the Silver Box, but

				' that would contradict the Golden Box

				' which should be true. So Golden Box does

				' not equal True.

				' Error!

		ElseIf silverBox.Statement = True Then

			goldenBox.Statement = False

			leadBox.Statement = False

				' Using the same logic as the Golden Box

				' If the Golden Box is lying then

				' the ring is not in the Golden Box. Which

				' would be backed up by the Lead Box's claim

				' that the Golden Box doesn't contain the ring

				' IF the Lead Box's statement wasn't flagged as

				' False. Since it is, it throws up the same

				' conflict as the Golden Box. The Lead Box being

				' False would tell us that the Golden Box would

				' have the ring. Therefor the Silver Box does

				' not equal True.

				' Again Error!

		ElseIf leadBox.Statement = True Then

			goldenBox.Statement = False

			silverBox.Statement = False

				' If the Lead Box is truthful and the Golden

				' Boxes as well as the Silver Boxes statements

				' would be false. If Golden's statemtent is false,

				' the ring would either be in the Silver or Lead

				' boxes. If Silver's Statement is false then the

				' ring would be in there and since The Lead Box is

				' used against the Golden Box to tell us that the Golden

				' Box is not truthful, it makes the Silver Box the

				' box with the ring by denying the claim the Golden Box

				' had on the ring.

		End If

	End If


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



Truth Table: "If Ring Was In Box 'X'"

	(Could also be called "If Box 'X' Is Truthful")

	(This is fosley's Truth Table Shortened.	  )


	_______________________________________________

	|	 	 | Inscriptions					  |

	|---------------------------------------------|

	| Golden  | The ring is in this box.		   |

	| Silver  | The Ring is Not in this box.	   |

	| Lead	| The Ring is not in the golden box.|

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

	VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV


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

	|		|   Golden	|	Silver   |	Lead	 | Tally | Tally |

	|		|	Truth	|	Truth	|	Truth	| Truth | False |

	|-------------------------------------------------------------------

	| Golden |	 T	   |	   T	 |	   F	 |   2   |   1   |

	|-------------------------------------------------------------------

	| Silver |	 F	   |	   F	 |	   T	 |   1   |   2   |

	|-------------------------------------------------------------------

	| Lead   |	 F	   |	   T	 |	   T	 |   2   |   1   |

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

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

	| Note: Table above refers to If Box X's Inscription (The Boxes|

	| in the Columns) is true would the ring be in Box R (The Boxes|

	| in the Rows). But you already knew that. Just clarifying it. |

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


	_______________________________________________

	|	 	 | Inscriptions					  |

	|---------------------------------------------|

	| Golden  | The ring is in this box.		   |

	| Silver  | The Ring is Not in this box.	   |

	| Lead	| The Ring is not in the golden box.|

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

	VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV


Truth Table: "If Box 'X' is Lying"

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

	|		|   Golden	|	Silver   |	Lead	 | Tally | Tally |

	|		|	Lying	|	Lying	|	Lying	| Truth | False |

	|-------------------------------------------------------------------

	| Golden |	  F	  |	  F	  |	  T	  |   1   |   2   |

	|-------------------------------------------------------------------

	| Silver |	  T	  |	  T	  |	  F	  |   2   |   1   |

	|-------------------------------------------------------------------

	| Lead   |	  T	  |	  F	  |	  F	  |   1   |   2   |

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

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

	| Note: Table above is saying if the box in the column is lying what  |

	| boxes could have the ring in it. It's just the opposite of the	  |

	| previous Truth Table. Since the results came back inverse of the	|

	| first table we know that we didn't screw up somewhere along the way.|

	| THUS...																	|

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

Answer!: The Silver Box has the ring!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I did the logic corectly and this is my first time solving a puzle here, yay! (It's in the silver box)

The question states that either one or none of the statements are true.

If only one of the statements are true it would be as followed:

If the gold statement was true it would be in the gold box, but

it would make the silver boxes statment false which would make it in that box too,

and there is only one ring so that can't be true.

If only the silver box was true, it wouldn't be in the silver box, but

the gold satement would be false so it can't be in there, and

the lead statement is false which means that it is in the gold box, but we already found out it's not, so that can't be true.

If only the lead box was true, it wouldn't be in the gold box(stated by the lead box and gold box) which would put it in the silver box.

__________________________________________________________________________

Now if all the statements were false

It would not be in the gold box

It would be in the silver box

But then it would also be in the gold box, so one has to be true to make this whole puzle work.

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  • 3 weeks later...

wow congrats to everyone who got it! i had a gut feeling it was in the silver box, but i misread. i didnt catch the fact that only one or none were true. you all were very confusing by the way but the one before me ^ made sense. thanks!

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  • 1 month later...
um, shouldnt it be lead box? since either only 1 lie, or all of the boxes lie. so if gold is lying then its in the lead box because silver says : the ring is not in this box. if they were all lying, then the puzzle would be unsolvable because lead would say the ring is in golden box and golden would say its not

no, because its not that "since either only one lie or all of the boxes lie" it's either "all the boxes lie or only one of them tells the truth". however the answer could still be the silver box.

motto

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

most human flaws boil back down to having the IQ of a corn dog. :wacko:

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W00t i solve it... kinda easy.. isnt it the silver box since both the silver and gold box are lying and the lead box is telling the truth

er...well..all the extra stuff besides the words really confused me....what? :(

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:rolleyes: Duh, the only possible answer is that the one true statement is that the ring is not in the Golden box, and that it must therefore be in the Silver box.

Pandora's Box I. - Back to the Logic Problems

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Pandora, who wanted a bright groom so she made up a few logic problems for the wannabe. This is one of them.

Based upon the inscriptions on the boxes (none or just one of them is true), choose one box where the wedding ring is hidden.

Golden box

The ring is in this box.

Silver box

The ring is not in this box.

Lead box

The ring is not in the golden box.

Pandora's Box I. - solution

The given conditions indicate that only the inscription on the lead box is true. So the ring is in the silver box.

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  • 2 weeks later...
yeah i think it is in the silver box!!! <!-- s:lol: --><!-- s:lol: -->

Hmmm.... but the gold box lies (see below)

If the rest are true, ie.silver box doesn't have the ring and the gold box doesn't have the ring

then sure the lead box must have it....... :huh:

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...
  • 2 years later...

um, shouldnt it be lead box? since either only 1 lie, or all of the boxes lie. so if gold is lying then its in the lead box because silver says : the ring is not in this box. if they were all lying, then the puzzle would be unsolvable because lead would say the ring is in golden box and golden would say its not

^^^ I agree...it was the original answer I arrived at.

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