The Puzzle Page
by: Erik Oosterwal
A Cabbage, a Goat, and a Tiger
Here's an old one, but a good one. It's probably the first logic puzzle
anyone ever posed to me; I have memories of thinking about it when I was
in elementary school.
In this logic puzzle, a man is traveling with a tiger, a goat, and a cabbage.
I have no idea why he would be travelling with such a strange assortment,
but there he is anyway. At one point in his journey he comes to a river
which is too deep to wade across, and too wide to swim across so he is in
a quandry on how to continue. He notices a small boat tied to the near
shore, but the boat is too small to fit all his belongings into, but it is
large enough so that he can safely row across with one belonging at a time.
The problem is that if he rows across with the tiger first, then the goat
will eat the cabbage, and if he rows across with the cabbage first, the tiger
will eat the goat.
How can he safely cross the river with all his things intact?
I give up, show me the Answer
See what other people are saying the answer is at The Puzzle Page Blog Site.
All original puzzles and solutions are © Erik Oosterwal 1993-2008
See all the brain teasers on The Puzzle Page.
Get daily puzzles in your RSS reader at The Puzzle Page Blog Site.
Looking for answers to computer programming problems?
Read what's going on in the Computer Science 101 classroom.
