diwana
October 2, 2010, 1:54am
50
Re: Cryptic Puzzles and Riddles
Diwana, it took me a while to understand it too. It’s actually a math problem.
It’s not 20 men who have cheated; it’s 20 wives. The horns happen when the wife cheats.
Here’s how mt friend explained it:
Suppose only one man has horns on his head. Then when he looks around the town and sees no one else with horns, and the traveler said that at least someone does have horns, then he can conclude that he has horns and kills his wife that night.
Now suppose there are two men with horns. Each knows that the other has horns, but is unsure between the cases (a) wife is not a cheater and only one man has horns and (b) wife is a cheater and he too has horns. So the first night, if it were the case that only one man has horns, then we go to case one, and there is one woman dead that night. However, if one day passes with no death, then on the second day the husbands know that it’s not case 1, so there must be at least two. Since they saw only one man with horns in the village, that means the second must be him. So on the second night, two women are killed, because each husband realizes that he too must have horns (which is why the other guy didn’t kill his wife the first night).
You can follow the same logic for N=20. The reason the traveler’s comment touches off the murder spree is because there is no confirmation that anyone has horns (think of case 1). Once he confirms it, then the husbands begin to deduce whether they have horns or not.
I hate to spend a lot of time on this question and sound argumentary but with all due respect, I still do not agree with the background and logic of the question/answer. This post of yours has flaw and not what the question had.
Like I said before, the question was created by someone who did not think of ALL possibilities.
We do not have to continue this discussion since the spirit of the thread is fun and not to sound arguing.
Lets just say we agree to disagree. Thank you.
P.S. We can discuss this in PM if you wish.
