During their recent episode, Taylor, Carlisle, and Pieter Slegers discussed The Power of ‘I Don’t Know’: A Logical Riddle to Test Your Reasoning Skills, here’s an excerpt from the episode:
Tobias: That was good stuff. This is a little bit of a nonsequitur, but I saw a little riddle the other day that I thought was interesting about the power of “I don’t know.” So, there’s two logicians, and I won’t ask you two guys to give answer to this, because I had to write this down to figure this out. But I did ask my nine-year-old son, and he answered off the top of his head and got it right. So, it is possible.
This is the riddle. There are two logicians, which means that they’re able to reason perfectly, they’re not going to make any reasoning mistakes, who sit down facing each other and they have each chosen a number between 1 and 30, and they don’t know the other’s number. So, the first says, “Is your number double mine?” And the second says, “I don’t know.” Second says, “Is your number double mine?” And the first says, “I don’t know.” The first says, “Is your number half mine?” And the second says, “I don’t know.” The second says, “Is your number half mine?” And the first says, “I don’t know, but I know your number and I know my number.” So, you have to be able to figure out what the two numbers are. Put your answer in the comments, and we’ll take a look. Next week, we’ll give the answer.
Jake: Wow.
Tobias: So, my nine-year-old got that off the top of his head, but I had to sit down with a pen and paper and cross out all the numbers. But it is achievable on that information.
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2 Comments on “The Power of ‘I Don’t Know’: A Logical Riddle to Test Your Reasoning Skills”
I guess the first had chosen the number 4. Cannot figure out the second logician’s number.
The first says, “Is your number double mine?” And the second says, “I don’t know.”
This means the second has chosen an even number. 2, 4, 6, 8, … 30. Had he chosen an odd number, he would have answered with surety, “No”.
Second says, “Is your number double mine?” And the first says, “I don’t know.”
This means the first has chosen a multiple of four. 4, 8, 12, 16, … 28. Had he chosen any other number, he would have replied with surety, “No”.
The first says, “Is your number half mine?” And the second says, “I don’t know.”
This means the second has chosen 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 or 14. Had he chosen any higher even number, he would have replied with surety, “No.”
The second says, “Is your number half mine?” And the first says, “I don’t know, but I know your number and I know my number.”
This means the first has chosen 4. Had he chosen any higher number, he would have replied with surety, “No”.
The second logician could have chosen any among 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 14.
Eager to know the correct answer.
The answer is “I don’t know”