Quote:

Quote:

A Game Show Puzzle

Imagine that you are on a game show, a curtain rises and the host shows you four doors behind it. The first two doors are closed, and have a letter on the front of the door. The first door shows the letter "A" and the second the letter "B". The third and fourth doors are open and you can see what's inside: inside the third door is a beautiful model holding a goat by a leash; inside the fourth door is another beautiful model, sensuously stroking a new car. Because the last two doors are open, you can't see what letter is on the outside of the door; don't assume that they are "C" and "D" simply because the other two start the alphabet!

The host of the game show says: "We have a rule on this show thatif a door has a vowel on it then there is always a goat within. The question I have for you is whether the four doors that you see violate this rule. Of course, we could check the rule by opening every closed door and checking the front of every open door, but we would like to test the rule in the easiest way possible. If you can tell me the way to test the rule that checks the fewest doors, you will win the brand new car you see behind the last door!"

What will you say to the host? Recall that checking the first two doors means opening them to see what's behind them, and checking the second two doors means closing them to see what letter is on the front of the door. What is the smallest number of doors that you need to check, and which doors are they?




Source (and solution): The Fallacy Files.



What, Hydra? Are you illustrating the reasoning behind the topical Watson Puzzle with this modified hybrid example?