Executioner Riddle: Can You Find the Answer?

[Bobert]

I LOVE riddles!

A man is to be put to death for murder. The exicutioner says "You can say one thing. If i find it is a lye then i shall drown you. if i find it true i shall hang you." What can the criminal say to be spared?

 

[Bobert]

You all SUCK.

But i got the hardest riddle if you can solve this one.

 

[Chrono]

Was what he said, "One thing"?

 

[Bobert]

yes
asdfadsfasdfadsf

 

[arildno]

"I am going to be drowned.."

 

[Bobert]

and by one thing i mean one sentance.

 

[Bobert]

yup
i hate the 10 letter thing

 

[Bobert]

next riddle.

There are three gods in a room. the god of truth, God of false, and god of random. The god of truth will allways tell the truth, the god of false always lies, and the god of random is unpredictable. The gods also never speak english. they will only answere with nee or yee. asking ONE question you must figure out witch god is witch and what nee and yee mean.

 

[NateTG]

There are three gods in a room. the god of truth, God of false, and god of random. The god of truth will allways tell the truth, the god of false always lies, and the god of random is unpredictable. The gods also never speak english. they will only answere with nee or yee. asking ONE question you must figure out witch god is witch and what nee and yee mean.

That's impossible.

 

[Bobert]

no it isn't but it is very very tricky

 

[arildno]

Can you state a question that all three must answer simultaneously?

 

[Bobert]

yes you can. any question at all

 

[Bobert]

also sorry for the late response i was away

 

[NateTG]

no it isn't but it is very very tricky

Well, if you're willing to be tricky consider the following:

You cannot assume that 'yee' and 'nee' correspond to 'yes' and 'no' since there are questions that can cause problems. "Does your answer to this question correspond to 'yes'?" is a bit problematic. Let's say that the god of lies answers. Clearly, the god of lies cannot respond with the sylable that corresponds to no, since it is true, similarly, the god of lies cannot respond with the syllable that corresponds to 'yes' since that is also a true response.

 

[Bobert]

yes but he says the oppisate of truth so if you say "God of false, are you a god?" the god of false will answere because he was directed to and he will also say a lie so if he says yee than yee means no but if he says nee than nee means no.

 

[Bobert]

If u post agian i will answere tomarrow cause i got to go

 

[arildno]

I think I've solved it:
Suppose the gods sit around a table (or in a circle).
Furthermore, we assume the gods are well-mannered beings; in particular, they will refrain from answering if not asked.

We now ask:
"Oh, gods of Truth and Falsehood, pray tell me at once if the god at your left-hand side will answer "no" in your language to my question?"

Argument:
1. Due to a good upbringing, the God of Random remains silent.
He is therefore readily identified.
2 Case 1. God of Truth has the God of Random on his left side.
The God of Truth is obliged to answer "no" in his language, since otherwise he would have implied that GoR says something in response to our question, i.e, he would have uttered a lie.

Hence, GoF is forced to say "no" as well, in order to deny the truth that the god on his left side (GoT) will say "no".

Conclusion:
In this arrangement, we'll get identical answers from the two gods.

3. Case 2. God of Falsehood has the God of Random on his left side.

GoF is obliged to answer "yes"; otherwise, he could be charged with having implied the truth that GoR won't say anything at all.

Hence, GoT must say "no" in response to our question.
Conclusion:
In this arrangement, we'll get different answers from the two gods.

4.
Hence, we may conclude:
If both answer identically, the GoT sits at GoR's right-hand side, and the word said means "no".

If their answer differs, the GoF sits at GoR's right-hand side, and his answer means "yes"

 

[cytokinesis]

He said the God of Random is unpredictable, not silent, did he not?

 

[arildno]

I made the explicit assumption of a well-mannered GoR.

 

[NateTG]

Actually, if you have them on a circular table, you could just go around the table asking "would the god to your left always indicate that..." until one of them changes their mind to identify the god of random.

As it stands the suggested approach allows a third reply (no answer) to the question.

 

[davilla]

You cannot assume that 'yee' and 'nee' correspond to 'yes' and 'no' since there are questions that can cause problems.

Moreover than that, we don't know that they speek English. For a negatively stated question such as "Aren't you a god?" some languages would have you answer differently; in French, in fact, there is a different "yes" answer to such a question. In Mandarin, a yes/no question will be answered with the verb, or "not" and the verb. For example, the response to "Can you speak Chinese?" is literally "Can, I can speak Chinese." So as far as we know there may be completely different grammar rules based not just on what we ask the gods but how it translates into their language.

 

[arildno]

As it stands the suggested approach allows a third reply (no answer) to the question.

I assumed that the gods answer a question if and only if that question is addressed to them.
(Which implies that a question addressed to only two of the gods identify the non-addressed god by his silence)
I really don't see how the riddle can be solved without this assumption.

"Moreover than that, we don't know that they speek English."
Without assuming "English-in-disguise", we can have no solution either.

I would be very interested if anyone can come up with a solution resting on weaker assumptions than the ones I made.

 

[NateTG]

I would be very interested if anyone can come up with a solution resting on weaker assumptions than the ones I made.

If you can assume the gods are at a round table, then you don't need the no response answer:

So repeatedly ask all three of the gods sitting at a round table, "Would the god to your right ever deny that the god to his right is consistent?" until one of them changes their mind. That god must be the god of random. The answer the god to the right of the god of random gives indicates no. If the other two gods give different answers, then the god to the right of the god of random is the god of false, otherwise it's the god of truth.