The Big Fight

[java.x.beast]

So this is what happened. Yesterday I was on IRC and was chatting as usual. Then, Calimer comes on and I asked him if he could solve a sophism (one of my favorites ). Within one minute of me writing the sophism, he tell me what he think to be the answer. I, however, was prepared and told him is answer was incorrect. Then, we started arguing for over half an hour. If any one of you would please dare to settle this.

Sophism:

A slim crocodile living in the Nile took a child. His mother begged to have him back. The crocodile could not only talk, but was also a great sophist and stated, "If you guess correctly what I will do with him, I will return him. However, if you don't predict his fate correctly, I'll eat him." What statement should the mother make to save her child?

Calimer's Answer:

The mother has to say "You will give him back to me".

My answer:

The mother has to say "If I correctly predict his fate, you will give him back to me. If I don't, you will eat him."

The screenshots of our fights on IRC are in the "Sandbox in Action" gallery under the names, "the fight...", "the fight... 2...", and "the fight... 3...". Tell us who is right by using the poll at the top of this topic.

Thanks,
CEO of Vulcanis Entertainment,
Addis Regassa

[cork279]

I'm gonna go with Calimers response, since it makes the most sense to me.
You gave 2 responses, so your not telling the crocodile what he will do, but what he could do...

[java.x.beast]

I'm gonna go with Calimers response, since it makes the most sense to me.
You gave 2 responses, so your not telling the crocodile what he will do, but what he could do...

Imagine my response being a piece of code.

Example:

Code: Select all

motheranswer = 0


r_script_signal talk [
r_script_say "If you guess correctly what I will do with him, I will return him. However, if you don't predict his fate correctly, I'll eat him." [
r_response "Calimer's Response" 1 ; (r_global_set motheranswer 0)
r_response "Java's Response"  1 ; (r_global_set motheranswer 1)
                                                ]

if ( < (r_global_get motheranswer) 1 )
                   [
r_script_say "I'm sorry but you are wrong. Therefore, I must eat your child. GOODNIGHT! XD" [
r_response "NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HE ATE MY CHILD! I'll get you back for this...." -1
                  ]
                  [
r_script_say "You have guessed correctly. I can't BELIEVE I got beaten. Here is your child." [
r_response "W00000000000T!!!!! I OWNED YOU CROCCY! THIS IS SO T0T4L PWNAGE!!! W000000000T!!!!! \,,/" -1 ; echo "You got your child back!"
]
                  ]
]

I know this isn't the best piece of code ever written, but it does get the point across. I hope. Also, three other people agree with me.

[chocolatepie33]

I'm gonna have to agree with you, because I just googled this, and most people said that your answer would be correct because the mother would be correct no matter what.

[java.x.beast]

WOOT! Thanks, CP. It really pays off to hear that. Took me over an hour to figure it out...

[Runescapedj]

Really? isn't like 30 secs to 1 min enough?

[jSoftApps]

I'm gonna have to agree with you, because I just googled this, and most people said that your answer would be correct because the mother would be correct no matter what.

Isn't google awesome!

[arcones]

Not if you try to think through it from each angle properly and sufficiently. Otherwise you may end up giving a bad answer.

[Runescapedj]

Maybe that's for me cuz I've heard another one such as this one before =P

[java.x.beast]

Really? isn't like 30 secs to 1 min enough?

Does this answer your question?

Not if you try to think through it from each angle properly and sufficiently. Otherwise you may end up giving a bad answer.

This is exactly what I tried to do. At first, I thought that this answer was wrong because I thought it was two answers, but then I realized that it's not . It's, in fact, only one answer jumbled up into one sentence. If the questions is "question goes here", then why can't the answer be "question goes here"? I hope you see where I'm going with this.