kitkattail  +  5222 Fri, 22 Aug 03 03:51 AM A friend of mine emailed me with a series of logic puzzles he had; I'll post them here one at a time. Here's a very easy one to start us off: On the island of knights and knaves, every inhabitant is a knight or a knave. Knights always tell the truth, and knaves always lie. Once, when I visited the island of knights and knaves, I came across two of the inhabitants resting under a tree. I asked one of them "Is either of you a knight?" He responded, and I knew the answer to my question. What was each person, a knight or a knave? kitkattail Joined on Tue, Aug 12 2003 Toronto Full Member 400 www.kitkattail.blogspot.com

	Jacko  +  5230 Fri, 22 Aug 03 04:45 AM I don't know if it's possible to tell whether the person who responded was a knight of a knave. The knight can ONLY say, "yes." The knave can ONLY say "no." Jacko

	kitkattail  +  5239 Fri, 22 Aug 03 07:01 AM Remember that the knight can tell only the truth, while the knave can tell only lies. So anyway, Jacko, that's a lot of indecisiveness. What's your final answer? kitkattail

	Jacko  +  5242 Fri, 22 Aug 03 07:43 AM Well...here's what I got... The knight can ONLY say"yes" because by saying "no," he's saying he is not a knight. So tha's solved. On the other hand, the knave can say "yes" and he will be lying because his companion would be a knave. The knave can also say "no" and he will be lying because he can say that companion is a knight. What exactly is your question? Determine each one to be eithe a knight of a knave? Jacko

	kitkattail  +  5289 Fri, 22 Aug 03 06:24 PM No no. Determine the combination of knights and knaves. There could be two knights, two knaves, or one of each. You also don't know what the answer was. But yeah, that's about right. Basically, as you outlined, either the knight or the knave could say "yes." Therefore, had the answer been "yes," you wouldn't have known what the combination of knights and knaves was. Since you are able to determine the combination, the answer had to have been "no," which would be said under one condition, namely, by a knave whose companion was a knight. Therefore there must be one of each. kitkattail

	kitkattail  +  5290 Fri, 22 Aug 03 06:30 PM Here's the next one: There are three islanders, A, B, and C, standing together in a garden. You ask A, "How many knights are among you?" A replies indistinctly, so you ask B, "What did A say?" B replies, "A said that there is one knight among us." Then C says, "Don't believe B; he is lying!" What are B and C? kitkattail