This riddle has fascinated me for years. I know the answer, but it still boggles me. Since you and others on thie fourm seem to be a fan of logic puzles, here is what is widely proclaimed to be the hardest riddle ever.

Three gods A , B , and C are called, in some order, True, False, and Random. True always speaks truly, False always speaks falsely, but whether Random speaks truly or falsely is a completely random matter.

Your task is to determine the identities of A , B , and C by asking three yes-no questions; each question must be put to exactly one god. The gods understand English, but will answer in their own language, in which the words for yes and no are “da” and “ja”, in some order. You do not know which word means which.

Have fun

Lee

This puzzle while extremely complex is actually quite easy if you use the 'if and only if' theory. Using this theory you can easily ask 3 questions in which the identities will be formed. An example of this would be 'There is no luck in poker if and only if Bill Frist is the greatest man in the world'. The statement will only make sense if the comments are either both correct or both wrong. So conversely 'There is luck in poker if and only if Bill Frist is a piece of shit'.

Question 1. You would ask A the following question-

"Does 'da' mean yes if and only if you are true if and only if B is random?"

If you get the answer 'da' and A is true or false then B is random and C is either true or false. However if A is true or false and you get the answer 'ja' then B is not random which makes B either true or false. And lastly if A is random then neither B nor C are random. So if A is random and you get the answer 'ja' B is not random and is obviously true or false. If A is random and you get the answer 'da' then C is not random and is either true or false.

Question 2. You would go to B or C (whichever you have discovered to be true or false) lets use B and ask:

"Does 'da' mean yes if and only if there is luck in poker?"

True will answer 'da' and False will answer 'ja' to this question. Now after your first two questions you have identified B as either being True or False.

Question 3. Since you have identified B as being either True or False you would now ask him the following question-

"Does 'da' mean yes if and only if A is random?"

Lets say B is true for arguements sake. If he were to answer 'da' then you now know that A is random therefor B is true and C is false. Now lets switch and say B is false and you get the answer 'da'. You now know that A is NOT random but C is. So A would be true, B is false, and C is random.

maybe who knows tho right..:p

Way to blow it for everyone Henderson..

Wasnt this the way to get into the doorway in The Labrynth (the only reason I saw was OBV because Jennifer Connolly is in it, although there isn't her standard titty shot)?

How about this as a stab at another partial answer?

p = da means yes
q = You are true

Then we ask Does p OR q hold?

True gives the following answer: If da means yes, then he says da. If da means no, then he says ja, because the statement is still valid. So, asked to true, that gives us the meanings of da and ja.

False says this: If da means yes, then he says ja, since the statement is valid. If da means no, then the statement is false, so he says ja again.

I guess that doesn't really lead anywhere.

What I'm thinking is that one needs to set up some logical combination of three statements using the logical operators AND, OR and NOT (iff is just a combination of those) so that you can deduce the identities from the 3 answers taken together.

Also, if you can use the first two questions to determine the identity of random, then you can still ask as your last question to whoever is left, Does da mean yes? If you get a ja, then you have identified false, and the other guy is true, etc.

So, I would think that the trick would be getting random out of the picture with the first two questions somehow. He's the one causing all the trouble imo.

To whoever is interested i found this lenghty answer to this puzzle:

Cool, I'm not going to look just yet, though. But I'm also not following Henderson's question 1, and it seems to me like question 3 violates the rules anyway.

So, I'm going to be a lot more simple-minded here but take a stab at it without the 3-question limitation.

Ok, first, I'm going to ask all 3 of them "Does 'da' mean yes?"

As shown above, true always answers da and false always answers ja. And, of course, random will answer one or the other. So, we have either 2 das and 1 ja or 2 jas and 1 da.

Case 1: 2 jas.

We've now determined who is true, but we still don't know what da and ja mean. Let's say A is true (answered da). It's obvious that we can get there now with 2 more questions, but I'm going to try to do it with just one. How about "Is it true that da means yes iff B is random?"

Ok, if da means yes, then A will answer da if B is random, and ja if B is false.

If da means no, then A will answer da if B is random (since NOT p and q, the iff statement is false, hence returning a no). If B is false, then A will answer ja (yes), since NOT p and NOT q.

So, that works. If A answers da to this question, then B is random in either case (and C false). And if A answers ja, then B is false and C is random.

Case 2: 2 das.

We've now determined who is false (whoever answered ja). Let's say A.

Let's try the same question.

If da means yes, then if B is random, we have p iff q valid. Hence, A will answer ja. If, however, B is true, then we have p iff q invalid, so A will answer da.

If da menas no, then if B is random, we have p iff q invalid, so A will answer ja. But if B is true, then p iff q is valid, so A will answer da.

In either case, A will answer da if B is true (and C random). And A will answer ja if B is random (and C true).

Ok, that does it in 4 questions anyway.

Good one Shuster...by golly, i'd never heard that one! thank the 3 gods i was asleep when you posted it.

I dont see anywhere that it says you can ask each god only one question just that each question must be directed at only one good.

I take take this to mean that you can ask 1 god all 3 questions if youd like to but you cannot ask one question to all 3 gods at once.