Puzzle 10: QuibbleFic Part I (Bears and Wolves)
Closing her eyes, Silverstream leans back and falls into the waiting hooves of Sandbar.
“Wow, so that’s what a trust fall is, huh? That was incredible!”
“I’m still uneasy about the whole thing,” Smolder states despite Gallus successfully catching her.
“It’s all part of loyalty, I guess,” Ocellus concedes, Yona having caught her moments earlier. “So what now?” she asks Rainbow Dash, noting her professor perusing a collection of hoofwritten notes.
Rainbow looks up with a start. “Wha? … oh yeah, go ahead and change places and do it again.”
Ocellus turns towards Yona, then back to her professor. “Um … I don’t wish to cause trouble, but …”
“What are you looking at?” Gallus interrupts. “You haven’t paid any attention to us since we got here.”
Rainbow groans and shoves the papers aside. “I’m sorry, everyone. I’m just trying to do somepony a favor, but it’s proving harder than I thought.”
“Are you trying to do someone’s taxes?” Silverstream asks. “I’ve heard those are super-challenging.”
“No, it’s nothing like that,” Rainbow says before sighing. “I’m reading fanfiction for a friend.”
“What fan-fiction?” Yona asks.
“Lemme back up … how many of you are familiar with Daring Do?”
Sandbar nods as the others shrug in ignorance.
“Well,” she starts, careful not to reveal her favorite author’s true identity, “Daring Do is this pegasus adventurer who goes on quests for rare artifacts and treasures. Her stories are really incredibly awesome,” she adds with a touch of over-enthusiasm.
“Sounds interesting … for a pony, anyway,” Smolder concedes.
Rainbow continues: “Now many of us … I mean, many other fans are so impressed with these stories that they create their own stories related to the original.”
Gallus scoffs. “Really? Ponies can’t make enough of their own lives, so they have to live the life of made-up characters?” Smolder and Yona chuckle at the comment, as Rainbow bites her tongue.
“In any case, I have this friend that I met at a Daring Do convention, named Quibble Pants. The other day, I got a message from him: he’s been writing his own Daring Do stories, and he wants my opinion.”
“Let me guess,” Gallus says, “his writing is terrible and you don’t know how to break it to him.”
“That’s an awful thing to say,” Ocellus chides, before pondering for a moment and turning towards Rainbow. “That isn’t what the problem is, is it?”
“His writing is OK, I guess … but he and I have differing thoughts as to what makes for the best stories. I love the action-adventure aspects, but he’s all about the puzzle-solving that was more … uh … there was more of it in the earlier stories.”
“You mean it was more prevalent?” Ocellus asks.
“Yeah, that … saaay …” Rainbow continues, an idea popping into her head.
“Say what?” Yona asks.
“I’ve been hearing a lot from the other professors about how well you six solve puzzles … like, thinking puzzles and whatnot … maybe you can help me out with these.”
“Seems like our reputation is spreading,” Smolder states. “So this ‘Quibble’ guy, he made puzzles?”
“Yeah, kinda like a lot of the earlier stories, but way harder,” Rainbow states. “Like, he’s got a whole chapter where Daring Do is imprisoned by some new villain that he dubs a logitaur.”
“A what?” Sandbar asks.
“Basically, a minotaur who likes logic puzzles the same way Quibble does. So without going into the whole plot, the logitaur has Daring Do trapped in a room with 3 doors; she has to choose the correct door to make her way to freedom.”
“What if she chooses the wrong door?” Silverstream asks.
“Then she gets mauled by either a bear or a wolf.” The others exchange funny looks with each other. “I skipped some stuff,” Rainbow admits. “Basically, the logitaur keeps a number of bears and wolves, whose job is to prevent trespassers from escaping.”
“Wonderful,” Gallus deadpans. “So what does any of this have to do with puzzles?”
“Here, have a look,” she says as she passes a sheet of paper across her desk. The students gather round to inspect the puzzle:
Door 1: “This room contains a bear.”
Door 2: “This room contains a wolf.”
Door 3: “This room leads to freedom.”
“According to the story,” Rainbow explains, “the logitaur placed a bear in one room and a wolf in another room; the third room leads towards the final exit. If Daring Do chooses the wrong door, really bad things will happen to her. Each door has writing on it to hint at the correct way forward.”
“So why not just take Door 3?” Sandbar asks.
“Because the logitaur put in rules regarding the messages: Any room containing a bear has a true statement, and any room containing a wolf has a false statement. The room leading onward could have either a true or a false statement on it.”
The group ponders the rules set out for a minute. “Seems like a convoluted way to get the reader to solve a puzzle,” Smolder states.
“But still, an interesting puzzle,” Ocellus adds. “Fairly easy though, this one.”
“There’s more,” Rainbow states. “After Daring Do solves the first puzzle, she moves on to another room that contains 5 doors. Of those, two contain bears and two contain wolves, with one room leading onward. Here’s what the doors to those rooms say,” she continues as she pushes a second page towards the group:
Door 1: “Rooms 2 and 3 both have bears.”
Door 2: “Rooms 4 and 5 both have wolves.”
Door 3: “Rooms 2 and 4 contain animals of different types.”
Door 4: “Rooms 2 and 5 contain animals of the same type.”
Door 5: “This room leads to freedom.”
“That one look harder,” Yona states.
“And Quibble created a third puzzle,” Rainbow states. “After Daring Do solves the second puzzle, she moves on and eventually finds herself in a third room, this time containing 7 doors. Three bears, three wolves, and one room that leads onward.” She pushes a third page across her desk:
Door 1: “No two adjacent rooms contain animals of the same type.”
Door 2: “An even-numbered room has the exit.”
Door 3: “The room with the exit is adjacent to a room with a wolf.”
Door 4: “Either this room has a wolf or Room 5 has a bear.”
Door 5: “Room 2 has a wolf and Room 6 has a bear.”
Door 6: “Room 3 has a wolf.”
Door 7: “This room leads to freedom.”
“And after that,” Rainbow starts.
“Don’t tell me this guy put in a fourth puzzle!” Gallus says with some exasperation.
“Now you know how I feel … but no, he has something completely different after this. But still, he expects me to solve all three of these puzzles. Can you believe that?”
Yona speaks: “So when professor say class can help out, professor mean …”
“Can you solve these?”
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The first answer is the second door. The second cannot have a bear or a wolf as the wolf has to lie meaning he cannot tell the truth about him being a wolf and the bear would say that he's in the room.
For the second answer. Door 3 has to be true because if it were false then both 2 and 4 have to be false since 2 says 4 is a wolf meaning 1 is false as well resulting in 4 lies out of a possible 3. Since 3 is true then door 4 has to be false since there is only 1 bear left and 2 and 5 would have to be opposite. Since 4 is false we know 2 to be true meaning doors 4 and 5 contain wolves. recap ( 1: Unknown 2: true 3: True 4:wolf 5: wolf). Since we have no wolves door 1 cannot be false as it would have to be the exit or a bear and if it were a bear then we would run out of them. Solution: Door 1
For the third answer. Door 1 is false since 4 and 5 both have to be bears. Door 4 cannot be the exit since that would force 1,5,6 and 7 to be false (too many wolves). Since 4 is true and NOT the exit it has to have a bear forcing 5 to have a bear. This means that 2 is false and 6 is true meaning door 3 has a wolf. To recap (1: False 2: Wolf 3: Wolf 4: Bear 5: Bear 6: Bear 7: Unknown). Since door 3 has a wolf we know the exit is next to a bear forcing it to be door 7. Solution: Door 7
Ok sounds simple enough
Part 1
a door cant have a wolf and be true,so door 2 is the correct path
Part 2
since there is only 2 bears and 2 wolves, door 1 must lie
If 2 is true, doors 4&5 must have wolves and door 1 is escape
If 2 is false, 3&4 are true and 5 is false, door 1 is still escape
Part 3
if door 4 is bear, so is door 5&6,with 2&3 being wolves
That means door 1 is also a wolf, and door 7 is the exit
9430952
Whoops … that 2nd puzzle wasn't supposed to have multiple solutions. Just lucky that the way onward is the same either way.
9430985
Nah I made a mistake and corrected it. My second solution had a contradiction I didn't notice until going over it a third time.
Part 1: easy peasy
Self-referential, so first statement must be true. Bear, freedom, wolf
Part 2: less easy, but fairly straightforward
Guessed first statement is true, instant win. Freedom, bear, bear, wolf, wolf
Part 3: hoo boy
Still can't see the logical way to do it, but luck FTW. Guessed statement five is true. Wolf, wolf, wolf, bear, bear, bear, freedom
Tonight was not a logical night for me. I just looked for single statements that, if true, could solve all the others.
9431594
I follow a similar path: Which statements affect each other? Which statements all reference the same thing? (For example, in this chapter's second puzzle, statements 1, 3, and 5 in the second puzzle all reference door 2.) Which statement is the most restrictive? (For example, statement 5 in the third puzzle.) Assume them true and see if you can get consistent answers.