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**emjay** · (This post was last modified: June 17, 2017 at 10:03 pm by emjay.)

(June 17, 2017 at 7:45 pm)The Gentleman Bastard Wrote: Honestly, from the way the riddle is worded, only the first prisoner can get the correct answer because "Silence ensues, but after quite a while, one of the prisoners yells: I got it!"

If all were silent, how would the second and third prisons ever get hints about what the others could see?

I think that's the significance of the prolonged part of the silence... giving the others a chance to answer:

So the first guy can only answer if there's two white feathers in front of him. If that's not the case then he keeps quiet and the second guy gets a chance to answer. At this point there must be at least one black feather between him and the guy in front. If he sees a white feather in front of him then he must be the black and therefore can answer. But if he sees a black feather then he could be black or white, so he can't answer with certainty so he keeps quiet, giving the last guy a chance to speak, who, knowing that it's fell through to him and knowing the progression which would lead to that, can answer with certainty that his own feather is black.

The point being that all three of them can potentially answer black with certainty, with it falling through to the next guy in sequence if one cannot. Therefore all possible random distributions of feathers are covered.

Jess won that one. I still worked it out meself by just working through it as I wrote that... because reading other people's logic is really hard for me... I tend to get lost in it Wink

but the gist was there in Jess' post and I presume we're saying the same thing Wink

Losty · June 17, 2017 at 10:05 pm

You people are way too smart for me

**emjay** · June 17, 2017 at 10:10 pm

(June 17, 2017 at 10:05 pm)Losty Wrote: You people are way too smart for me

And me... I get them way late... if at all Wink

but it's still fun though Wink

Losty · June 17, 2017 at 10:15 pm

The answer makes sense but I would have never figured it out on my own.

**emjay** · (This post was last modified: June 17, 2017 at 10:30 pm by emjay.)

(June 17, 2017 at 10:15 pm)Losty Wrote: The answer makes sense but I would have never figured it out on my own.

Neither did I (thanks Jess Wink

)

The hardest thing about riddles is undoing the assumptions you make... ie they're usually designed specifically to send you down the wrong line of thinking and leave you stuck there... so it's about thinking outside the box and questioning your most basic assumptions. But if you can break away from whatever assumptions you're making, then it's usually fairly easy to solve the puzzle. But breaking free of assumptions is the hard part.

Like for instance the one about the pasture is trying to get you to make assumptions about the word 'runs' and imagine something running around it on legs or whatever, but if you can break that assumption and think of other uses for the word runs, you can solve the puzzle. But if you can't, then you could be stuck thinking 'inside the box' forever after, and never get any closer to the answer.

Losty · June 17, 2017 at 10:31 pm

Who is posting the next one?

Jesster · June 17, 2017 at 10:31 pm

It just takes a lot of practice. What emjay said is all very true. Sometimes you just have to slow down your brain instead of trying to rush to the answer. I guess one of the reasons I like riddles is because my brain does not want to work quickly Big Grin

And then there's Alex, who is just a genius.

**emjay** · June 17, 2017 at 10:33 pm

(June 17, 2017 at 10:31 pm)Losty Wrote: Who is posting the next one?

I would think that's Jess or Alex... but I think Alex has yet to 'mark' Jess, and may not be around at the moment Sad

Jesster · June 17, 2017 at 10:34 pm

(June 17, 2017 at 10:31 pm)Losty Wrote: Who is posting the next one?

Alex hasn't said whether we were right or not. Emjay and I appeared to have come to the same conclusion, though, and it does seem to work out. Since emjay worded it better than I did, I'll let him take this one if he wants.

**emjay** · (This post was last modified: June 17, 2017 at 10:38 pm by emjay.)

(June 17, 2017 at 10:31 pm)Jesster Wrote: It just takes a lot of practice. What emjay said is all very true. Sometimes you just have to slow down your brain instead of trying to rush to the answer. I guess one of the reasons I like riddles is because my brain does not want to work quickly

And then there's Alex, who is just a genius.

You're both geniuses as far as I'm concerned Wink

(June 17, 2017 at 10:34 pm)Jesster Wrote:
(June 17, 2017 at 10:31 pm)Losty Wrote: Who is posting the next one?

Alex hasn't said whether we were right or not. Emjay and I appeared to have come to the same conclusion, though, and it does seem to work out. Since emjay worded it better than I did, I'll let him take this one if he wants.

No no no, you have it Wink

But I'm sure it's right... because it covers all possible configurations... so I can't see what else he could be asking for.

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