Logic and Laughter: A Railway Tunnel Experiment

  • Context:
  • Thread starter Thread starter mathmaniac1
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Logic
Join the discussion
Registration is free. Ask a follow-up in this thread, or start your own.
4 replies · 2K views
mathmaniac1
Messages
158
Reaction score
0
Three scholars are riding in a railway car. The train passes through a
tunnel for several minutes, and they are plunged into darkness. When they emerge,
each of them sees that the faces of his coll~agues are black with the soot that flew in
through the open window. They start laughing at each other, but, all of a sudden,
the smartest of them realizes that his face must be soiled too. How does he arrive
at this conclusion?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Nobody can do this?;);)
 
he touches his face?
 
Since they all start laughing they quickly realize that each of them sees at least one sooted face.

If there were two sooted faces, two of them would see only 1 sooted face.
These two would stop laughing then, knowing their face had to be sooted.

When after a while no one stops laughing, they realize all 3 faces are sooted and they stop laughing almost simultaneously.

When they have all stopped laughing they have confirmation for their analysis. $\quad \blacksquare$
 
I like serena...:D:D

But only one finds it because only he is a scholar...