You are travelling and come across a road division. You don't know which of the two roads to take. You see two people around there. One of them always lies and the other always speaks the truth, whatever you ask them. Now what is the minimum number of total questions you need to ask them to get your correct path if we assume that they both know the correct answer and you don't know who speaks truth and who lies?
P.S. You can ask yes/ no questions ONLY. i.e., questions with answer either yes or no. You can't ask other type of questions.
C'mon.. You obviously don't have and maps (not even google maps!) Otherwise you'll get the answer wrong.
And oh. please! You can't test who is the liar and who is the truthful one by asking questions like are you a man and all... Otherwise you'll get the answer wrong.
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I added a claim at the top to make sure that you state your one question clearly.
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How did you become a moderator?
okay.. thanks though!
That makes it a total of 2 questions,
I thought we could only ask yes/no questions... How has no one noticed this? Your question is "What would ... say?". Obviously the answer can't be answered with a 'yes/no', it can only be answered by 'He would say ...' I believe the question can be changed accordingly to fit the rule, though.
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"What would the other person say if I ask him if this if the correct path?" OK. How about we use "would the other person say yes if asked if the left path were the correct path?" And yeah, the comment makes sense, but the answer to the original question would not necessarily have the "he would say." Although, if I were one of those guys by the road I would refuse to answer on that basis, just to make it harder. He he.
If I ask you X, what will you answer?
This will force a truthful answer of X, no matter whether we ask the honest person or the liar. The honest person would respond truthfully to X, and being a honest person, will state this truthful answer. The liar would respond untruthfully to X, and being a liar, will not state this untruthful answer, stating the opposite--or truthful--answer instead.
So just come to one person and ask "If I ask you 'is this road the correct path?', what will you answer?" Follow accordingly.
Awesome. . :YR
are you trying to tell me that a lie never exits? o.O
sorry but PLEASE make sure you know what is a lie first..
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This is exactly your solution, but negated so you don't have to "take the opposite of what reply you get".
Suppose I ask one of them "is 1+1=2?". I can either get an answer of YES from the honest person, or NO from the liar.
Now, imagine this. "If I ask you 'is 1+1=2?', what will you answer?"
The honest person would answer YES. So the question can be phrased as "If you should say YES, what will you answer?" Of course he will reply YES.
The liar would answer NO. So the question can be phrased as "If you should say NO, what will you answer?" Now, being a liar, he must lie, and thus should say YES instead.
Thus either way, we will get a honest answer to "is 1+1=2?"
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yeah... did a smaller solution :P but cool enough :)
what about if we can not assume that the two people know each other what would the questionbe then.
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If the two people don't know about each other, only my solution works; when asked about the other person as in Payal's solution, both people cannot reply with certainty and thus neither of them will give a certain answer.
Um actually that last line in the problem gave away the answer.
If you ask the question, "What would the other person say if I ask him if this was the correct road?" you will be able to determine which is the correct one.
Here's the proof: Situation A-you ask the truth-teller about the correct road. He will tell the truth-that is, that the liar would say it was the wrong road.
Situation B-you ask the liar about the correct road. He will tell a lie-that is, that the truth-teller would say it was the wrong road.
Situation C-you ask the truth-teller about the wrong road. He will tell the truth-that is, that the liar would say it was the correct road.
Situation D-you ask the liar about the wrong road. He will tell a lie-that is, that the truth teller would say it was the correct road.
Therefore, no matter who you ask or which road you ask about, if you are told the other person would tell you it was the wrong road you are pointing to the correct road, and if you are told the other person would tell you it was the right road you are pointing to the wrong road.
"Now what is the minimum number of total questions you need to ask them to get your correct path" They didnt asked us wat's the maximum no. of questions...we cant ask zero questions...so the answer is one question...tatz how i answered
It has been mentioned in question that both know the correct answer. So, if i go and ask (either of the men) that, "Do you know the correct road to be taken?" If you ask the liar he would give the answer as No, then the other man is the man of truth. If you by luck ask the true man, he would say YES..... Hence, only one question can reveal the personality of the men.
The situation says that you don't know who among the two men tells the truth or lies.
I assume that each villager stands beside one road One answer: Is the road beside the truth teller the correct road?
If the answer is yes, I take the road beside the person, if the answer is no, I take the other road.
Read the instructions/situations first.
"Do you know what path is the correct path?" If one of them say "no", he's the liar.
However, you're not allowed to test which one is the liar/truth teller, and if you ask that question you would have to ask another question to determine which road was correct.
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Yup definitely agreeable. That makes you ask 2 questions tho.
You can ask either of them, " What would the other man choose as a path for me to take?" If it was the truthful one you were asking, he would ask the liar, and the liar would be forced to point at his path. Then the truthful one would point at the liar's path. If it was the liar, he would say the truthful one would point at his path.
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CLAIM: the one question "What would the other person say if I ask him if this if the correct path?" suffices.
Now here we have 4 possible things which can happen. Lets look at them one by one.
You approach the liar. What would the other person (here, the truthful person) say if I ask him if this if the correct path? (pointing at one of the roads.
The road is correct. The liar knows the truthful person would say yes, but he himself always lies, so he would say NO. Now you know that if the liar said no, it is the correct path.
The road is not correct. The liar knows the truthful person will say no, but he himself will say YES. Now, you know that if the liar said yes, the other path is the correct one.
Now if you approach the truthful person and ask him the same question,
If the road is correct. The truthful person knows the liar would say no, but he himself always speaks truth, so he would say NO. Now you know that if the truthful person said no, it is the correct path.
The road is not correct. The truthful person knows that the liar would say yes, but he himself always speaks the truth. So he would say YES. If he says yes, you know that it is the wrong path.
So even if you don't know who lies and who speaks truth, you know what common question you can ask so that you get an answer which will always lead you to the correct path. If you get a no from either of them, take that path, and if you get a yes from either of them, take the other path.