Honestants and swindlecants XI

[Prof. Templeton]

There are three omniscient Gods sitting in a room. The God of the Honesants, the Swindlecants, and the Randomcants. The Gods will only answer Yes/No questions. The Honestants God always answers truthfully, the Swindlecants God always lies and the God of the Randomcants only seems to answer randomly, but in fact will answer with an affirmative only if, one and only one, of the other two Gods would answer with an affirmation, otherwise he will answer with a negative.

You have entered the room and your task is to determine which God is which with only three questions. Unfortunately you don’t know the language of the Gods, only that there are two distinctly different words for Yes and No.

Rules:

• The Gods will only answer Yes or No questions.
  
• The Gods will answer in a single word in their language either an affirmative or a negative.
  
• Each question must be addressed to a specific God. Asking one question of all three Gods is three questions.
  
• You may ask more than one question to a single God.
  
• You may chose your next question(s) based on previous answers.
  
• Because of possible loop conflicts, you may not ask any question about how the God of the Randomcants would answer.
  

The concept for this problem is not of my own making. I will give full credit to the author after an acceptable solution is found.

[Prof. Templeton]

i worked hard on this riddle and have come up with this answer

ask one of the three gods these 2 questions

(1) are you god of randomcants?

(2) what would the honestants god say if i asked him the sme question?

ask any of the other 2 gods the (2) question again

tell me if you want an explanation......

In this scenario the Gods would answer thus:

H - N to Question 1, N to Question 2

S - Y to Question 1, Y to Question 2

R - Y to Question 1, Y to Question 2

Possible responses to the three questions would then be:

H&S - NNY

H&R - NNY

S&H - YYN

S&R - YYY

R&H - YYN

R&S - YYY

So besides the randomcant and the swindlecant having the same responses to the questions, because the words for "yes" and "no" are unknown we cannot distinguish between NNY and YYN.

[Guest]

In this scenario the Gods would answer thus:

H - N to Question 1, N to Question 2

S - Y to Question 1, Y to Question 2

R - Y to Question 1, Y to Question 2

Possible responses to the three questions would then be:

H&S - NNY

H&R - NNY

S&H - YYN

S&R - YYY

R&H - YYN

R&S - YYY

So besides the randomcant and the swindlecant having the same responses to the questions, because the words for "yes" and "no" are unknown we cannot distinguish between NNY and YYN.

according to the question, R would not answer the ques. as 'yes' if the others' reply is no... and would not answer the ques. as 'no' if other's answer is yes and thus we can distinguish b/w them

[Prof. Templeton]

according to the question, R would not answer the ques. as 'yes' if the others' reply is no... and would not answer the ques. as 'no' if other's answer is yes and thus we can distinguish b/w them

It has been a long time, but i think the Randomcant God would answer "yes" if only one of the other Gods would answer the same question with a "yes". If both of the other Gods answer the same way the Randomcant answers "no".

[Guest]

It has been a long time, but i think the Randomcant God would answer "yes" if only one of the other Gods would answer the same question with a "yes". If both of the other Gods answer the same way the Randomcant answers "no".

i thought the randomcants god would answer 'yes' if only one of other gods answer other questions with a yes.. now ill have to think about this puzzle again..

you try my puzzle.. lets see if you can do it