Puzzle

You've got 3 items, a wolf, a goat, and a head of cabbage, that you have to carry across the river in a rowboat. Only one item can fit inside the rowboat at a time (work with me here).

The wolf wants to eat the goat, and the goat wants to eat the cabbage, so you can't leave them unattended. For example, if you transport the wolf first, you'd have left the goat alone w/ the cabbage -- and the goat will eat the cabbage.

How do you transport all 3 items, intact, to the otherside?

you take the goat first of course! wolffes don't eat cabage do they?

That's right. Wolf won't eat the cabbage. And of course, the goal is to somehow have all 3 on the other side.

javamaker wrote:

Where's my prize?

Did you get all 3 across?

Some quick questions Minh (I will conceal the question in case it's a trivial part of the puzzle):

In reality, you have to transport 4 items, the 3 items you mentioned and you, the person transporting them. If that's the case, you can't exactly have a boat that fits only one item as you'll never get the items across!  Other than pushing the boat (hoping that it will reach the other side) and then pulling the boat back with an attached string, there doesn't seem any real way to transport items. Then again, a sail could work too....


Also, does the wolf like cabbage too? Or does the Cabbage head have a poisoned ingredient that is only active in Wolves?  You haven't mentioned the Wolf and the Cabbage's relationship.





That'll do for now. Tricky

mVPstar

This is similar to the classic Microsoft interview one, isn't it?

 

Goat across, come back

Cabbage across

pick up goat, take back to other side

Wolf across, come back

Goat across.

 

-Take the goat across
-Go back and get the cabbage
-Take cabbage across, leave cabbage, take goat back across
-Leave goat, take wolf across
-Go back and get goat

Goat--------->
Cabbage------>
<------------Goat
Wolf---------->
Goat--------->

OR
Put the wolf in the boat, drag the cabbage behind and make the goat swim to try to catch it.


Goat        cabbage-----|-wolf>

Goat.

Wolf

Goat <Return>

Cabbage

Goat

Took me 30 seconds.

yeah Cider got this one

bring the goat over, then bring the cabbage over and bring the goat back, bring the wolf over, then come back for the goat

Okay, now my post up there looks silly.


I was thinking that the person transporting constitutes as an "item" since Minh said "Only one item can fit in the boat at a time" as opposed to "You can carry only one item with you at a time" which is what it usually is.


I take things too literally.


mVPstar

A good puzzle I heard the other day was, ask someone to do this sum in their head as you say it to them:


"1000

plus 40

plus 1000

plus 30

plus 1000

plus 20

plus 1000

plus 10"


You'd be surprised at how many people think the answer is 5000.

Is the answer: 1010


[Crosses fingers]...hope I didn't take this too literally as well.


mVPstar

Yeah I can see why... I mean you use 1000 four times, then you get 100 bringing it to a total of 4100, I can see why people would push the 100 up one dp making it 5000.

Either that or the number is 100040100030100020100010

mVPstar wrote:

Is the answer: 1010


[Crosses fingers]...hope I didn't take this too literally as well.


mVPstar

heh, no, its just 4100.  Its just as you add it up, especially doing a running total in your head, you are inclined to round up the tens of 40,30,20,10 up to the next 1000 becuase you are adding the thousands at the same time.  Simple trick!

Darn it, I took it literally again then!

"Find the sum as you hear the numbers..."

I was thinking you had to call out the sum after you hear every 2 numbers.


Bah, I should just stick to what I'm good at which is empathy.  My IQ is perhaps the size of a tree stump, a very very small tree stump.

[C]

mVPstar

 This is a fun logic puzzle, supposed to be created by Einstein. Never took the time to complete it.

TAKEN DIRECTLY FROM http://www.coudal.com/thefish.php
(GO THERE FOR THE ANSWER)

This brainteaser, reportedly written by Einstein is difficult and Einstein said that 98% of the people in the world could not figure it out. Which percentage are you in?

There are five houses in a row in different colors. In each house lives a person with a different nationality. The five owners drink a different drink, smoke a different brand of cigar and keep a different pet, one of which is a Walleye Pike.

The question is-- who owns the fish?

Hints:
1. The Brit lives in the red house.
2. The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
3. The Dane drinks tea.
4. The green house is on the left of the white house.
5. The green house owner drinks coffee.
6. The person who smokes Pall Malls keeps birds.
7. The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhills.
8. The man living in the house right in the center drinks milk.
9. The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats.
10. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
11. The man who keeps horses lives next to the one who smokes Dunhills.
12. The owner who smokes Bluemasters drinks beer.
13. The German smokes Princes.
14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
15. The man who smokes Blends has a neighbor who drinks water.

There are no tricks, pure logic will get you the correct answer. And yes, there is enough information to arrive at the one and only correct answer.

Here's a good one.   No peeking!

You're in a room, connected to another room via a hallway. You cannot see either room from the other, and once you leave the first room the door locks behind you and you can't get back in.  The entire structure is windowless, and there is no way to see a room without being in it.

The first room has three switches on the wall, and none of them are connected to the light in the first room.  The second room has a light but no switches.  One of the switches in the first room turns on the light in the second room.  How do you figure out which one?

Answer:
Turn switch #1 on for a few minutes.
Turn switch #1 off, turn switch #2 on.
GOTO room #2. 
If the light is on, it's switch #2.
If the light is off and cold, it's switch #3.
If the light is off and warm, it's switch #1.