LWG Riddles
Riddle Me This
A lonely wanderer, wounded with iron,
I am smitten with war-blades, sated with strife,
Worn with the sword-edge; I have seen many battles,
Much hazadous fighting, oft without hope
Of comforts or help in the carnage of war.
Ere I perish and fall in the fighting of men.
The leavings of hammers, the handiwork of smiths,
Batter and bite me, hard edged and sharp;
The brunt of the battle I am doomed to endure.
In all the folk-stead no leech could I find
With wort or simple to heal my wounds;
But day and night with the deadly blows
The marks of the war-blades double and deepen
We got this right, highlight this line to view the answer: Shield.
Question
On returning from a particularly odd adventure, you find yourself in the posession of an Orc, a Hobbit, and a cream bun. You need to get across the river to return to the Guild but the boat you have will only allow you to carry one thing at a time. The trouble is, if you leave the orc alone with the hobbit, he will eat him, and if you leave the hobbit alone with the cream bun, he will do the same.
We got this right, highlight these lines to view the answer:
- Take the hobbit over
- Go back empty
- Take the cream bun over
- Go back with the hobbit
- Take the orc over
- Go back empty
- Take the hobbit over
Houses
There are five houses. Each house has a unique colour, and each owner is of a different race. Each owner also has a different pet, drinks a different type of beverage, and smokes a different brand of pipeweed. The clues are:
- The orc lives in the red house
- The human keeps a dog
- The elf drinks tea
- The green house is on the immediate left of the white house
- In the green house, they drink coffee
- The person who smokes Pall Mall keeps birds
- In the yellow house, they smoke Dunhill
- In the middle house, they drink milk
- The hobbit lives in the first house
- The person who smokes Blend lives in the house next to the house with the cats
- In the house next to the one with the horse, they smoke Dunhill
- The person who smokes Blue Master, drinks beer
- The dwarf smokes Prince
- The hobbit lives next to the blue house
- They drink water in the house that lies next to the house where they smoke Blend
Who owns the Zebra?
We got this right after a lot of discussion, highlight this line to view the answer: The Dwarf.
Chessboard division
Is it possible to cut up a standard chessboard so that each piece has twice as many as one colour of the other?
I got it straight away but the others needed convincing.
Highlight these lines to view the answer:
The answer is No. The reason is that there are sixty four squares on a chessboard and to have twice as many of one colour as the other, each piece must contain a multiple of three squares. However, 64 is not a multiple of three.
Fuses
Assume you have a number of long fuses, of which you only know that they burn for exactly one hour after you light them at one end. However, you don't know whether they burn at constant speed, so the first half of the fuse can be burnt in only ten minutes while the rest takes the other fifty minutes to burn completely. Also assume you have a lighter.
Question: How can you measure exactly three quarters an hour with these fuses?
We finally got this one.
Highlight these lines to view the answer:
- Fold one fuse in half and simultaneously light both ends of it, as well as one end of a second fuse.
- When the first fuse is burnt, light the other end of the second fuse and one end of a third fuse
- When the second fuse is burnt, you have three quarters of an hour left on the third one.
Bridge crossing
Four men want to cross a bridge as they are being chased by a nasty troll. They all begin on the same side. It is night and they only have one torch with them. At most, two men can cross the bridge at a time and, any party that crosses, either one or two people, must have the torch with them. The torch must be walked back and forth, it cannot be thrown etc.
Each man walks at a different speed due to previous injuries at the hands of the troll. A pair must walk together at the speed of the slowest man. Man 1 needs 1 minute to cross the bridge, man 2 needs 2 minutes, man 3 needs 5 minutes and man 4 needs 10 minutes. For example, if man 1 and man 3 walk together, they need 5 minutes.
The question is: How quickly can all four men cross the bridge?
We went for the obvious answer, which was 19, but that was wrong. Highlight the rest to see the right answer.
- Man 1 and 2 go over taking 2 minutes
- Man 1 returns, taking one minute
- Man 3 and 4 goes over taking ten minutes
- Man 2 returns taking two minutes
- Man 1 and 2 then cross the bridge taking two minutes
This adds up to seventeen.
How Old Are They
Saydar is as old as Engalton will be when Saydar is twice as old as Engalton was when Saydar's age was half the sum of their present ages.
Engalton is as old as Saydar was when Engalton was half the age he will be ten years from now.
Question: How old are Engalton and Saydar?
This was the one we could just not get. Highlight below for the answer.
The answer is 30 for Engalton and 40 for Saydar. Still trying to figure out the proof though.
From the first sentence, letting Saydar's current age = S, Engelton's current age be E, the # of years in the future when 'Engalton will be ...' = x, the # of years in the past when 'Saydar's age was...' = y, we get S = E + x; (S + x)/2 = E - y; S - y = (S + E)/e. From the second sentence, letting the # of years in the past when 'Engalton was half...' = z, we get E = S - z; (E+10)/2 = E-z. There are five equations, five variables, and no redundant equations, so it is solvable. The first three equations give a ratio S;E;x:y of 8:6:2:1 (acronym unintended). The last two equations give 2S+10 = 3E. This, with the knowledge that 3S = 4E from the first ratios, is sufficient to establish S=40, E=30.
