bonanova Posted January 12, 2008 Report Share Posted January 12, 2008 You run across three persons, each of whom is a knight [truthteller] or a liar You ask them, How many of you are knights? Person 1: Snagglefartz. You ask, What does snagglefartz mean? Person 2: It means one. Person 3: It does not! Who are they? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 unreality Posted January 13, 2008 Report Share Posted January 13, 2008 possibilties: KKK LKK KLK KKL LLK LKL KLL LLL since two and three contradict each other, they must be different, ruling out ones where 2 and 3 are the same, leaving these four: KLK KKL LLK LKL if person 1 is a knight then person 2 cannot be or there could only be one knight, so we can rule out KKL, leaving: KLK LLK LKL we can rule out LKL because if snagglefartz is indeed 1 (which it would be if the middle person was K), then the first liar was telling the truth. This leaves: KLK LLK notice how we only need to determine the first person now No matter what, person two is a liar and person three is a knight. So snagglefartz is NOT 1 because the liar said it is and the knight said it isnt. So if KLK is the answer, then the knight should have said 2. However he said snagglefartz, which COULD mean 2 but we don't know for sure. If LLK is the answer, the liar said something other than 1 since snagglefartz isnt 1, and since there is exactly one Knight then we know for sure that the liar was lying. Therefore the best answer is LLK. Person One- Liar Person Two- Liar Person Three- Knight Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 bonanova Posted January 14, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 14, 2008 Person 2 can't be a knight. That is, snagglefartz can't mean one. He and Person 1 both being knights contradicts the notion that snagglefartz means 1. But if Person 1 is not a knight [leaving Person 2 as the only knight] snagglefartz [meaning one and thus being true] could not have been said. So Person 2 is a liar, and Person 3 is a knight. The information given does not tell us what type Person 1 is - could be either a knight or a liar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 unreality Posted January 15, 2008 Report Share Posted January 15, 2008 Ah my bad. I guess I thought it could be acceptable in the strange land of KKL to have snaggelfartz mean a number. I didn't realize that was supposed to be thought of as a lie. Assuming it could represent a number, though, like "one" is 1, sorta, my solution would work, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 bonanova Posted January 16, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2008 Ah my bad. I guess I thought it could be acceptable in the strange land of KKL to have snaggelfartz mean a number. I didn't realize that was supposed to be thought of as a lie. Assuming it could represent a number, though, like "one" is 1, sorta, my solution would work, right? a number. It's just that the number can't be one - that generates a contradiction. It could mean two, however, and be the truth. In that case the solution is KLK - two knights. But we don't know that it means two. It could mean three. Or it could mean Oak Tree. In these cases, the solution would be LLK. So the solution LLK is consistent with the conditions. But the solution KLK is also consistent with the conditions. So the most we can say for sure is ?LK. We can't tell from the conditions which type Person 1 is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 unreality Posted January 16, 2008 Report Share Posted January 16, 2008 ah okay. I had that in my answer, I just went a step further and assumed we should give the best answer, which was LLK, I didnt know we could do a ?LK and stop there. I see now. Good riddle bonanova! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Guest Posted January 20, 2008 Report Share Posted January 20, 2008 Person 1 is introduced at first as a Knight because both of the others seem to know what Person 1 is talking about and what a Snaggelfartz is. But person 2 says Snaggelfartz is one. We already know Person 1 is the truthteller, so according to Person 2, Person 2 and 3 are both liers. But that can''t be possible because they both disagree with each other and one of them is a lier. This proves person 2 a lier because it is not possible for it to be one, since Person 1 is a knight and the reason I just explained. That could only mean that Person 3 was telling the truth which makes him a Knight as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Guest Posted January 20, 2008 Report Share Posted January 20, 2008 Person 1 is introduced at first as a Knight because both of the others seem to know what Person 1 is talking about and what a Snaggelfartz is. But person 2 says Snaggelfartz is one. We already know Person 1 is the truthteller, so according to Person 2, Person 2 and 3 are both liers. But that can''t be possible because they both disagree with each other and one of them is a lier. This proves person 2 a lier because it is not possible for it to be one, since Person 1 is a knight and the reason I just explained. That could only mean that Person 3 was telling the truth which makes him a Knight as well. Two faults in your answer. One, the first person is not introduced as a knight. He is introduced as Person 1. Second, just because two people disagree it does not mean they cannot both be lying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Guest Posted January 24, 2008 Report Share Posted January 24, 2008 You run across three persons, each of whom is a knight [truthteller] or a liar You ask them, How many of you are knights? Person 1: Snagglefartz. You ask, What does snagglefartz mean? Person 2: It means one. Person 3: It does not! Who are they? Fun fun. Seemed hard until I drew a grid and eliminated possibilities, after which it took about 2 mins ... Person 1: Knight Person 2: Liar Person 3: Knight Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Guest Posted January 29, 2008 Report Share Posted January 29, 2008 Fun fun. Seemed hard until I drew a grid and eliminated possibilities, after which it took about 2 mins ... ... to arrive at the wrong answer. I incorrectly eliminated LLK. Incidentally, I assumed that Snagglefartz would have to be an answer to the question, either a number or a statement such as "I don't know", "I can't tell you", etc. Otherwise, how could it be evaluated for truth? If I ask you how many fingers are on my right hand and you say "blue," is that a lie? On the other hand, I imagine it would most definitely get you tossed off Monty's Bridge of Death. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 bonanova Posted January 29, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2008 Snagglefartz could mean a number. It could also mean "Get lost, don't bother me." But, first, nothing in the puzzle really requires #1's response to have a truth value. And, second, not enough information is given to determine #1's type even if it does. So Snagglefartz is kind of a red herring; except that it gives the others something to talk about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Guest Posted January 29, 2008 Report Share Posted January 29, 2008 (edited) hi.. my answer leaves me with 3 possibilities.. is there any possibility to reduce it further and narrow it down to answer the question.. pls share if any.. answer person 1 person 2 person 3 1 ---- K K L 2 ---- K L K STUPID ---- L L K ANSWER cheers vins Edited January 29, 2008 by neovins Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Question
bonanova
You run across three persons, each of whom is a knight [truthteller] or a liar
You ask them, How many of you are knights?
Person 1: Snagglefartz.
You ask, What does snagglefartz mean?
Person 2: It means one.
Person 3: It does not!
Who are they?
Link to comment
Share on other sites
11 answers to this question
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.