[Ain't_It_Just_]

Frookenhauer, on Feb 21 2009, 11:08 AM, said:

Here is another one before I forget it and it is lost forever...

What flies when its on and floats when its off?

A helicopter?

[Mcflury]

Ain't_It_Just_, on Feb 21 2009, 12:39 PM, said:

Frookenhauer, on Feb 21 2009, 11:08 AM, said:

Here is another one before I forget it and it is lost forever...

What flies when its on and floats when its off?

A helicopter?

Helicopters don't float, they fall.

I think an airplane (the floating ones) are more accurate.

[frookenhauer]

WRONG!

At least you two are...Quick Slow benjamin is correct with a feather.

Riddle us quick!

This post has been edited by Frookenhauer : 21 February 2009 - 07:40 PM

[Slow Ben]

A detective found a dead man sitting at his desk with a gun in his hand, and a tape recorder was on his desk...the detective came in and picked up the tape recorder and pressed the play button...he heard "i am sick of my life. i have no purpose to live" and then a gunshot.

the detective instantly knew it was murder, not suicide. how?

[Slum]

The tape was rewound. Dead men don't rewind.

What's black and white and bleeds profusely? (This is bad, but I don't know any cool riddles)

[Sir Thursday]

A wounded Zebra?

EDIT: or perhaps a wet Newspaper - they bleed their type when you get them a little damp...

This post has been edited by Sir Thursday: 22 February 2009 - 01:59 AM

[Slum]

Sir Thursday, on Feb 21 2009, 08:58 PM, said:

A wounded Zebra?

EDIT: or perhaps a wet Newspaper - they bleed their type when you get them a little damp...

The answer was half a cow.

[Sir Thursday]

Never would have got that...

So should I propose a riddle then, or does someone else want a shot? I've got a fiendish one all lined up...


Sir Thursday

[Sir Thursday]

I'm just off to bed, so I guess I'll put it up now and see what happens.


I think of a pair of numbers (integers), both greater than one. There are two friends with me, Alex and Ben - to Alex, I whisper the sum of the numbers, and to Ben, I whisper the product. Neither of them heard what I whispered to the other. The following conversation ensues:

A - Given what I have been told, I deduce that neither of us can know the pair of numbers.
B - Now that you tell me this, I can work out what the numbers are!
A - Now I can too!

What were the pair of numbers?


Sir Thursday

[Slum]

Sir Thursday, on Feb 21 2009, 08:58 PM, said:

A wounded Zebra?

That was damn close....

Ask away...

[frookenhauer]

I would just like to point out that STD is a git...

[Cause]

Just a feeling. 2 AND 2

[Sir Thursday]

Cause, on Feb 22 2009, 07:50 PM, said:

Just a feeling. 2 AND 2

If Alex was told 4, then he would be able to work out immediately that the two numbers were 2 and 2, because they're the only pair of integers greater than one that give you the answer. So that doesn't work, I'm afraid.


Sir Thursday

This post has been edited by Sir Thursday: 22 February 2009 - 10:49 PM

[Giles]

my guess is the answer is 9 and 2

[Impirion]

Surely there isn't a unique solution ST?

[frookenhauer]

so does that mean they know that they have been told either a product or a sum?

[Impirion]

4 and 4 is one possibility I think, 2 and 6 another, 2 and 8.....

Edit, ok, I see the flaw in my plans.

This post has been edited by Impirion: 22 February 2009 - 11:09 PM

[HoosierDaddy]

A makes me think that the sum of the numbers is a prime number.

[Sir Thursday]

baudin, on Feb 22 2009, 10:56 PM, said:

my guess is the answer is 9 and 2

Well, that would mean Alex hears 11 and Ben hears 18.

Alex knows the pair is either (2,9),(3,8),(4,7) or (5,6). So he can look at the products of these: 18, 24, 28 and 30 and see that if Ben had been told any of these he wouldn't know what the numbers are. So the first statement checks out.

Ben would know that it was either (2,9) or (3,6), so on hearing Alex's statement he would know that (3,6) wasn't a possibility, because if he had been told 9 there was only one solution. So the second statement checks out.

Alex then has to look at 18, 24, 28 and 30 to see if he can figure out which one Ben knows. The problem is that if Ben had been told 24, he would have been able to make a similar deduction: 24 gives possible pairs (2,12), (3,8) and (4,6), and Alex's first statement allows Ben to eliminate 14 and 10 as possible numbers Alex could have been told. So the 3rd statement doesn't follow, I'm afraid.

@Impirion: I have only been able to find one.


Sir Thursday

[Sir Thursday]

Frookenhauer, on Feb 22 2009, 11:01 PM, said:

so does that mean they know that they have been told either a product or a sum?

Yes. I have told them that I have given Alex the sum and Ben the product. Should have put that in my original post, sorry.


Sir Thursday

EDIT: sorry for the double post.

This post has been edited by Sir Thursday: 22 February 2009 - 11:18 PM