Pandora's Box #2 (Solution)

Have you got your answer? Let’s compare with mine.

It’s said that there are 3 inscriptions as follow:

• Golden box: “The ring is not in the silver box.”
• Silver box: “The ring is not in this box.”
• Lead box: “The ring is in this box.”

And at least one inscription is true and at least one is false.

Once we read, those inscriptions seem telling us that the ring is hidden in the lead box (in case of all three inscriptions are right). As we know that there must be 1 true inscription and 1 false inscription, so that we can’t say that the ring “must be” in the lead box (but it “can be”).

Just like solving the first Pandora’s logic problem, we’ve got to know status of each inscription. There will be 6 possibilities as follow:

• 2 inscriptions are true, 1 inscription is false (3 possibilities)

• 1 inscriptions is true, 2 inscriptions are false (3 possibilities)

To know which possibility shows the fact, (just like in solving Pandora’s box #1, in this case) we’ve got to synchronize inscriptions in each possibility (and you’ve learn how to do it). Let’s see my work:

So, we’ve just known that the 1^st possibility shows the fact, and that is:

• Golden box: “The ring is not in the silver box.”
• Silver box: “The ring is not in this box.”
• Lead box: “The ring is not in this box.”
• And the wedding ring is in the golden box.

This brain teaser I copied from Brain Teasers (http://brainden.com/logic-problems.htm). Just on click on that link, then you’ll get more brain teasers to tease your brain or even just to ease your boring day. When you get stuck, you can visit brain teasers forum to get extra “clues” from them whom have tried to solve it (but for me, it’s better to do it by myself as I did in solving this quiz).