Re: Heaven or Hell in five words (or less)

On 28 Nov 2003 14:47:14 GMT, The Qurqirish Dragon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>
>>
>>"baboo1616" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
>>news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>> You come to a fork in the road.  One way goes to Heaven, the other to
>>> Hell.  Standing at the fork is a single powerful being who is either
>>> an Angel or a Demon.  As you know, Angels always tell the truth and
>>> Demons always lie, and they obviously know where each road leads.  You
>>> are allowed to ask this being just one question of five words or less,
>>> which he/she must answer.  What question can you ask which will reveal
>>> the correct road to Heaven (or Hell)?
>>
>>Ask it "which way to hell?"
>>Then go the opposite route.
>
> That won't work. The angel would point to hell, but the demon would point to
> heaven. No help.
> Unfortunately, the puzzle doesn't give me enough info to make an appropriate
> question. If we assume that angels come from heaven and demons from hell (this
> assumption is not given in the problem), then this is the classic two-roads
> problem, and we ask "Which way to your home?"- either the angel or devil will
> point to heaven in this case.
>
> Without this assumption, this is a variant of the two-roads problem, and I
> cannot think of a proper question that can be asked in only 5 words, as I need
> to add in a conditional phrase (for example: If I asked you which way to
> heaven, what would you say? is 12 words, but then the demon gets a
> double-negative (he would point to hell, but since he has to lie about it, he
> doesn't), so both would point to heaven)

"Would you say heaven's there?"  ("that way?" would probably be a better way to 
phrase it, but that takes six words.)

-- 
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Mark   Jeffrey   Tilford
[EMAIL PROTECTED]