Personal Comment: Just put both possibilities through and see what comes up.

Gold in a box Enigma

What we know: We have two closed boxes with a label on each one. Label A on box A: "The label on box B is true and the gold is in box A" Label B on box B: "The label on box A is false and the gold is in box A" We don't know if the labels (one or both of them) are true or false.

Enigma: Knowing FOR SURE that the gold is in box A or in box B, where's the gold?


Solution: Lets assume that label A is true. This means that label B is also true and the gold is in box A. In this case, the label A is false. This CAN'T be, because we assumed that the label A is true. Thus, our first assumption is invalid. So now we know that label A is lying. This leads us to two cases: (1) The label B is false. (2) The gold is in box B (now that we know that it cant be in box A). If (1) was true, then the gold is in box B or label A is true - which can't be because we know that label A is lying. So in BOTH CASES the gold IS IN BOX B

See who got this right


Previous Enigma | Enigma Index | Next Enigma



This window to the Fourth Dimension is hosted by Geocities