king, thief, and posion

valmatazz · New Member Joined: 06 Jun 2006 Posts: 22

There was a thief in a village and he was caught in the act. The king decided to be lienent and said the following "I will let you pcik your own destiny. I will give you 1000 bottles. 500 are filled with water, the other is filled with a toxic poison. They look exactly the same. I will also give you two boxes, you must arrange the bottles any way you like, as long as there are two bottles in a box... Then I will pick a bottle for you to drink, and we will see what happens from there."

How does the thief maximize his chance for survival.

valmatazz · New Member Joined: 06 Jun 2006 Posts: 22

anyone got the slitest idea?

memyself&i · New Member Joined: 09 Jun 2006 Posts: 10

haha empty the bottles

valmatazz · New Member Joined: 06 Jun 2006 Posts: 22

lol.... dont know how the king would like it

Riddleman · Site Admin Joined: 18 May 2005 Posts: 595

he trys one a little bit of each and puts only the water in...that is if the toxic posion didn't kill you when you first tasted it.

valmatazz · New Member Joined: 06 Jun 2006 Posts: 22

good guess riddleman, but the toxic is deadly to the touch.

there are many versions to this riddle but i only know 1.... so if you know some more just post em Smile

menard475 · New Member Joined: 19 Jun 2006 Posts: 1

i dont get the riddle

Ahab · New Member Joined: 22 Jun 2006 Posts: 7

Here's a guess: Water and poison will not weigh the same. Use the boxes as scales (somehow--each box at the end of a plank balanced upon any bottle?) to find bottles of separate weight. Put two of differing weight in each box. Any bottle chosen from either box has fifty-fifty chance of being water (or poison, of course)

Unclever title · Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 4:49 pm Post subject:

It is a math probability riddle, am I right? So, therefore I cannot answer it. But I assume that some of you out there know the proper formulas for such a problem.

Math and me, you see, we don't really get along anymore, he just so confusing I had to ditch him, don't look at me like that! I used to like to guy, but then he started going on and on with about his Calculus thingy-whatever, it got to be too much! The guy just lost principles man! he used to follow strict rules! but then all of a sudden he comes up with these loopholes! it's insane!!! I just know him anymore. He'a a completely different person...

valmatazz · New Member Joined: 06 Jun 2006 Posts: 22

ahab is correct, you see, poison is much more dense than water, which means it will weigh more, all you have to do is you the boxes as scales and measure the amount of liquid it takes to move the box, then you even the chances out

GameMaster · Site Regular Joined: 20 Apr 2006 Posts: 55

Or build up an immunity to the posin like in Princess Bride ... Smile

i luv solvin riddles · Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 1:52 am Post subject:

lol, funny Gamemaster, i luv that part in the movie

averysimplemind · New Member Joined: 06 Jan 2007 Posts: 11

[quote="GameMaster"]Or build up an immunity to the posin like in Princess Bride ... Smile

[/quote]

..It took him years to acquire an immunity.