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vampires,humans,werewolves and trolls

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[quote][i]Originally posted by westworld[/i]
[br]Transylvania is inhabited by humans, vampires, and werewolves. You cannot tell simply by looking at someone what he or she is. However, humans always tell the truth, vampires always lie, and werewolves sometimes tell the truth and sometimes lie.

In addition, some inhabitants are quite insane and think all true statements are false and all false statements are true. The other inhabitants are sane and correctly distinguish between true and false statements.

So, in Transylvania a false statement could be made out of malice or simply out of honest delusion. For example, a sane human knows the earth is (approximately) round and says so, while an insane vampire believes the earth is not round so will lie and say that the earth is round.

So now we know about the vampires, humans, and werewolves in Transylvania. But there are also trolls. Of course, trolls look exactly like everyone else so you cannot tell by looking what someone is. Like werewolves, trolls both tell the truth and lie. However, a troll alternates between truth and lies. That is, when a new conversation begins, a troll may either tell the truth or lie, but then the truth of each following statement alternates.

A human, a vampire, and a troll come up to you. All three are sane. You ask what they are and one of them says, �I am a vampire. The lady is human. The other one is a troll.�

Is the speaker human, a vampire, or a troll?

[/quote]

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T O P I C R E V I E W
westworld	Posted - 04/02/2012 : 12:10:02 Transylvania is inhabited by humans, vampires, and werewolves. You cannot tell simply by looking at someone what he or she is. However, humans always tell the truth, vampires always lie, and werewolves sometimes tell the truth and sometimes lie. In addition, some inhabitants are quite insane and think all true statements are false and all false statements are true. The other inhabitants are sane and correctly distinguish between true and false statements. So, in Transylvania a false statement could be made out of malice or simply out of honest delusion. For example, a sane human knows the earth is (approximately) round and says so, while an insane vampire believes the earth is not round so will lie and say that the earth is round. So now we know about the vampires, humans, and werewolves in Transylvania. But there are also trolls. Of course, trolls look exactly like everyone else so you cannot tell by looking what someone is. Like werewolves, trolls both tell the truth and lie. However, a troll alternates between truth and lies. That is, when a new conversation begins, a troll may either tell the truth or lie, but then the truth of each following statement alternates. A human, a vampire, and a troll come up to you. All three are sane. You ask what they are and one of them says, �I am a vampire. The lady is human. The other one is a troll.� Is the speaker human, a vampire, or a troll?
1 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First)
the_hill1962	Posted - 04/02/2012 : 12:53:16 On the outset, this problem looks impossible. However, it is actually easy if you just use the process of elimination. Hopefully the question was stated correctly (I see that it inferring that the speaker is NOT a werewolf because it asks "Is the speaker human, vampire or troll" and does not offer the choice werewolf). So, eliminate werewolf. As for eliminating human, vampire and/or troll, just suppose that the speaker is one of those and see if it is possible. For example, suppose the speaker is human: Could the human state "I am a vampire?". NO (since the problem sates that the speaker is sane and so must tell the truth. It would be a lie! So, eliminate human. I will leave it up to you to figure out which other one you can eliminate (a vampire or a troll).