Ok ... guess I missed that someone else completed the horse quest . At least now I don't have to worry about which bonus I am going to take.
I have finally decided to put down some cash and register a website. It is www.ruffhi.com. Now I remain free to move the hosting options without having to change the name of the site.
(October 22nd, 2014, 10:52)Caledorn Wrote: And ruff is officially banned from playing in my games as a reward for ruining my big surprise by posting silly and correct theories in the PB18 tech thread.
During these times of everyone working from home all the time, the team building, personal contacts and sharing that use to happen at work ... they still happen but are harder.
We have taken to having a 30 min call once a week where we don't talk about work. Initial problem is that no-one talks about anything.
Today, I came prepared with my fav logic / math puzzles (we are actuaries ... math geeks). Someone shared this one ...
A dragon and a knight live on an island where the only sources of fresh water are a pond (containing ordinary water) and six wells, numbered 1 to 6. Each well's water is completely indistinguishable from the pond water, but contains a magical poison that has no immediate symptoms, yet suddenly kills the drinker about an hour after drinking.
To make things complicated still, each well contains a different variety of poison. If a drinker who has been poisoned by a well drinks the water from another well, the result depends on the relative numbers. If the second well has a higher number then both poisons will eliminate each other and the drinker will be cured. If the second well has the same number or a lower one, it is as though the drinker had only drunk from the first well. For example, if you drink from well 1 and then from well 4 you will not be poisoned, but if you drink from well 4 and then well 1 you will be poisoned as though you had drunk only from well 4.
As a result of these rules, water from well 6 can cure poison from any of the other wells, but, when drunk by someone who is not poisoned, is incurably lethal. Furthermore, while wells 1-5 are a short walking distance from each other, well 6 is located at the top of an unclimbable mountain on the island that the knight cannot reach but the dragon can fly onto very quickly.
This sets the stage for the following puzzle: both knight and dragon understand these rules completely, know the numbering of each of the wells, and each want the other dead. Being evenly matched in combat, they arrange a special sort of duel. Each secretly fills a glass of water from one of the island's sources, then meets the other in a field, where they exchange glasses, and drink. They may seek water from any of the island's sources that they can personally reach before and after.
Is it possible for either the knight or the dragon to ensure it will survive this duel?
Note: drinking the same poison twice in a row (or 20 times in a row) has exactly the same effect as drinking the poison once.
I have finally decided to put down some cash and register a website. It is www.ruffhi.com. Now I remain free to move the hosting options without having to change the name of the site.
(October 22nd, 2014, 10:52)Caledorn Wrote: And ruff is officially banned from playing in my games as a reward for ruining my big surprise by posting silly and correct theories in the PB18 tech thread.
A) Knight may drink from pond or well 1-5.
B) Knight must drink dragon’s cup.
C) Knight may drink from pond or well 1-5.
A) Dragon may drink from pond or well 1-6.
B) Dragon must drink knight’s cup.
C) Dragon may drink from pond or well 1-6.
These all happen within the span of an hour, such that we look at drink A, check if poisoned, then look at drink B given A, check if poisoned, then look at drink given B given A, and check if poisoned?
If so, solution for dragon:
Dragon can guarantee survival by always drinking from well 5 before and well 6 after.
A) Drink from well 5. Become poisoned 5.
B) Drink whatever the knight brought. In all cases, remain poisoned 5.
C) Drink from well 6. Poison 6 cures poison 5.
Solution for knight:
Knight can’t guarantee survival, because it can only counter dragon bringing well 6 by drinking any well before and pond after. However, dragon can bring pond which beats that strategy. Knight beats dragon bringing pond by either drinking pond before and after, or drinking something like well 1 before and well 2 after. Knight can’t play both strategies. The best the knight can do is drink well 1 before, then randomly drink either pond or well 2.
Yes - you have it right. I initially missed that you can drink something before taking the drink from your opponent. My knight solution was to give dragon pond water then when he thinks he cures himself by drinking #6, he actually poisons himself.
I have a link to a solution where the Knight can survive.
Knight starts by drinking #4 ...
I have finally decided to put down some cash and register a website. It is www.ruffhi.com. Now I remain free to move the hosting options without having to change the name of the site.
(October 22nd, 2014, 10:52)Caledorn Wrote: And ruff is officially banned from playing in my games as a reward for ruining my big surprise by posting silly and correct theories in the PB18 tech thread.
B1) Dragon brings pond.
C1) Knight has to drink 5.
B2) Dragon brings 5 or 6.
C2) Knight has to drink pond.
Not looking good for the Knight.
Am I missing something in the setup? Can the Knight drink from more than one source before and after the Dragon's cup? If so, then the Knight can simply drink 1 before, then 1 followed by 2 after.
(June 25th, 2020, 18:08)Ruff_Hi Wrote: Yes - you have it right. I initially missed that you can drink something before taking the drink from your opponent. My knight solution was to give dragon pond water then when he thinks he cures himself by drinking #6, he actually poisons himself.
I have a link to a solution where the Knight can survive.
Then no matter whether the poison is removed by the dragon drink (5 or 6) or not removed by the dragon drink (0-4), after the 3rd drink he will be poisoned 4, which is cured by poison 5.
In fact Knight doesn't have to start with well 4, he could start with any well less than 5, so long as he returns there before drinking from the final well, which could be any well larger than the initial well.
Knight can drink anything multiple times (except #6 ... he can't get there).
I find this a fascinating puzzle.
I have finally decided to put down some cash and register a website. It is www.ruffhi.com. Now I remain free to move the hosting options without having to change the name of the site.
(October 22nd, 2014, 10:52)Caledorn Wrote: And ruff is officially banned from playing in my games as a reward for ruining my big surprise by posting silly and correct theories in the PB18 tech thread.
Yeah, the Knight's guaranteed survival comes down to whether or not the rules let you drink from multiple sources after the exchange. I guess I thought that there was some time-based limitation on how many wells the Knight could get to in an hour. I suppose you could imagine it as letting each combatant bring any number of cups to the meeting, drink from any number of them first, then offer one to the opponent that they must drink, and then drink any number of their cups again.
Under those rules, the Dragon can always survive by drinking 5, then the Knight's drink, then 6. The Knight can always survive by drinking 1, then the Dragon's drink, then 1, then 2.
Thanks for posting this Ruff, my friends and I used to get together for brunch and share riddles and logic puzzles like this. It was always fun to tweak the parameters and see what was necessary to each solution.
For instance here the number of drinking opportunities really matters, while how many wells there are is more or less irrelevant, as long as the Knight has access to the pond and two different poisons.
I would like to see the Knight mix in a sleeping draft and give that to the dragon. That way, the dragon falls asleep before getting to #6 and dies.
I have finally decided to put down some cash and register a website. It is www.ruffhi.com. Now I remain free to move the hosting options without having to change the name of the site.
(October 22nd, 2014, 10:52)Caledorn Wrote: And ruff is officially banned from playing in my games as a reward for ruining my big surprise by posting silly and correct theories in the PB18 tech thread.
(June 24th, 2020, 20:35)Ruff_Hi Wrote: Anyway ... met Cornflakes, 7 cities ... but he has the tech calendar. Offered Fur for Dye trade and OBs.
Dye for Fur & OBs accepted.
While I have met FT, I don't really know where he is. I think he is to the west of SD (they were involved in a short war but that could have just been a unit DoW for passage through territory).
Turn 110 next turn. Will give a more complete run down.
I have finally decided to put down some cash and register a website. It is www.ruffhi.com. Now I remain free to move the hosting options without having to change the name of the site.
(October 22nd, 2014, 10:52)Caledorn Wrote: And ruff is officially banned from playing in my games as a reward for ruining my big surprise by posting silly and correct theories in the PB18 tech thread.
. At least now I don't have to worry about which bonus I am going to take.