Puzzle no.1: The Banker and the Gold
Puzzle no.2: The Island Natives Anne, Belle, and Chuck
Puzzle no.3: The Tiger and the Treehouse
Puzzle no.1: The Banker and the Gold
A pirate with a murky past stands on the deck to look out over the ocean.
Actually, it can’t much be called a deck. It’s really a small boat that may be engulfed by a rather large wave in the blink of an eye. But the pirate finds comfort in standing “on deck” and scans the horizon for signs of land.
Nothing can be seen but rolling blue water in every direction. He shields his face against the setting sun with a glittering, ring-infested hand.
There! At the corner of his eye! A tiny black speck circles and circles in the sky. The pirate clambers to the oars, exclaims “Land at last!”, and begins to row at full speed.
By late night the pirate reaches the shore. He pulls the boat onto the sandy beach, stumbling and laughing crazily. Drunken and flushed with joy, he wiggles his toes in the sand, takes a swig from a flask, and turns around to take a good look at his island.
Ahead in the gloom is a craggy, rocky hill with an outline of some tropical shrubbery beyond. The pirate freezes. He notices a couple glowing holes in the hill, with smoke rising out into the starry sky.
When he arrives at the hill he peers through the hole and sees a large, dark room – a cave of sorts – with a man sitting inside.
“ARRRRRRRRRRRR!” says the pirate in his most inviting voice.
The man looks up from his work and says, “Ah, another pirate, have we? Why don’t you come inside?”
“ARRR,” acknowledges the pirate.
“I am the banker on this island,” says the man when the pirate has entered the cave room. “I deal with your lot every so often. As crazy as you all are you can sometimes be helpful.”
“I have a problem concerning gold that you may be interested in,” continues the banker. “If you can help me, I will reward you – with gold!”
The pirate’s eyes widen at the word. “Aye, matey, that be good,” he replies and breaks his monosyllabic spree.
“Excellent. Here I have three chests. In the first chest I have 2 cubes of real gold. In the second chest I have 2 cubes of fool’s gold. And in the third chest I have one cube of real gold and one cube of fake gold.”
“Now, as you can see, each chest is labeled: ‘REAL GOLD’, ‘FOOL’S GOLD’, and ‘TAKE YOUR PICK’. But my trouble-maker of a son has rearranged the labels and they are all wrong.”
“I am fond of a challenge. Here is your challenge: you must relabel the chests correctly. BUT you can only open one chest and examine one cube from that chest. Then you must re-label each chest correctly. If you meet my challenge, I will let you take a cube of real gold.”
“Aye,” says the pirate, “Me knows real gold from fool’s gold. Now thinkin’s the challenge.”
The chests are mislabeled and the pirate wants the gold. Which chest should the pirate choose to correctly label each chest?
For the answer try this applet:
http://www.cut-the-knot.org/SimpleGames/PickLabel.shtml
Puzzle no.2: The Island Natives: Anne, Belle, and Chuck
If pirates could skip, then the pirate would be skipping with happiness. The previous night he solved a puzzle for the mysterious banker on the island and won a bar of gold. As it were, pirates do not skip. But he carries the bar of gold in a bag slung over his back, and he takes a path through the island’s tropical shrubbery with a crooked grin and a glint in his eye.
After some walking the tropical shrubbery comes to an end, and as you may have expected, the pirate comes to a fork in the road. Three islanders sit on the grass at the fork in the road eating lunch and laughing merrily.
“It’s not everyday we get a pirate around here!” exclaims one of the islanders as the pirate approaches.
“Arrrrrrr,” acknowledges the pirate. There are two women and a man. One woman is short and squat, with curly ringlets of black hair and a piggy nose. The other woman is slight, red-haired, and very pretty. The man is tall, skinny, gangly, and smoking a pipe.
“My name is Chuck,” says the pipe-smoking man, “and this is Belle” – the red-haired lady – “and Anne” – the lady with black hair.
The pirate eyes the trio cautiously. The banker has told the pirate some strange facts about this exotic island. According to the banker (who is not an island native himself), there are two tribes on this island. The people of one tribe only speak the truth. The people of the other tribe are all liars – everything that comes out of their mouths is a lie. The pirate wonders if Chuck is a Liar or a Truthsayer.
“Well, come on, sit down and have some lunch with us!” Chuck beckons. The pirate shrugs and sits down at the offer of free food.
Chuck tells the pirate some magnificent stories about the island. “…and so, if you take the left fork in the road, you will meet certain death. Take the right and you will arrive at a village,” finishes Chuck.
Anne looks at the pirate with beady eyes. “Actually, it’s the opposite. Take the right fork and you will meet certain death. Take the left and you and your gold will be safe.” She flourishes a mischievous grin.
The pirate looks from Chuck to Anne. “Arrrrr, one of ye be a lyin’ scoundrel!”
The pirate turns to Anne. “Are ye a Truthsayer?”
Anne opens her mouth to respond. At that moment a gigantic coconut falls from the sky and lands on a nearby rock with a huge, splitting crash.
“Aye….what be that, Anne?”
“She said that she is a Liar,” cuts in Belle.
“Don’t believe Belle, she’s lying!” says Chuck.
Everything that a Truthsayer says is honest. Everything that a Liar says is a lie. Anne, Belle, and Chuck can only be a Truthsayer or a Liar.
What are Anne, Belle, and Chuck? Which path should the pirate take to avoid certain death?
Ready for the answer? Scroll down....
Yeah you worked it out, right? Okay here goes...
Answer! Anne and Belle are liars, and Chuck is the only truth teller.
Thanks for playing!
Puzzle no.3: The Tiger and the Treehouse
“Anne, ye lyin’ scoundrel, ye ought to be a pirate yerself!” the pirate complements her before parting ways with Anne, Belle, and Chuck.
The pirate is now running wildly through thick jungle foliage. A sleek, powerful tiger is in pursuit of him. Up ahead the pirate spots some bright red amid jungle leaves and vines – they are the brightly painted wooden beams of a treehouse!
The pirate pumps his legs as fast as they will carry him towards the treehouse, followed by the low growls and snarls of the tiger. He launches himself onto a wooden beam and scales upwards. After some progress the pirate is tugged to a hault. He looks down to see the tiger has her teeth firmly clenched on his peg leg.
“Hurry! Grab hold of my hand!” the pirate looks back up to see a man in the treehouse reaching down to him. The pirate grabs on and the man pulls with all his might. The tiger reacts by pulling harder on his peg leg.
The pirate screams several unpleasant comments including, “Yarrrrrrrrr, stop stretching meeeee!”
Then – pop! – the peg leg pulls free from the pirate and the tiger trots away with the prize still firmly clenched in her teeth. The man hoists the pirate up onto the treehouse and exclaims,
“Old Betty! We always wanted a good guard tiger, but all she ever does is play with you and your toys. Were you very attached to that peg leg? She might chew it up a bit.”
The pirate gives the man a beady look. “That mightn’t be the first peg leg, nor be it the last.”
“Well, come in then. Let’s have a drink and you can tell me some pirate stories.”
The pirate grins in what he perceives to be a cordial and courteous fashion. He is missing a couple teeth.
Hopping on one leg, he enters a big, square room with a thatched roof. A steaming cauldron hangs from the top in the center of the room. The pirate sits down on a leafy, weaved cushion.
The man brings a jug filled with a dark, stinky liquid and two cups. “I have some good drink to split with you, but oh dear…how can we split this evenly?”
In front of the man is an 8 quart jug full to the brim.
“I only have a big cup and a small cup,” he says and frowns.
The big cup is 5 quarts and the small cup is 3 quarts.
Using the 8 quart jug, the 5 quart cup, and the 3 quart cup, how can the pirate pour 4 quarts of drink for them both?
...Click for the answer...
Answer to puzzle number 3
Here is how I did this:
3 cups 5 cups 8 cups
---------------------------
0 0 8
0 5 3
3 2 3
0 2 6
2 0 6
2 5 1
3 4 1
0 4 4
Let me know if you did it differently.
And here is an applet (scroll down to "Three Glass Puzzle")