Here is a rather simple question with a “yes” or “no” answer. It just happens to be phrased in a roundabout way, but that shouldn’t stump you if you can find a way to reduce it to its fundamentals.
This can be done in three steps, leading to your rephrasing the question in such simple terms that the answer is immediately apparent.
Now go ahead.
“If the puzzle you solved before you solved the puzzle you solved after you solved the puzzle you solved before you solved this one, was harder than the puzzle you solved after you solved the puzzle you solved before you solve this one, was the puzzle you solved before you solved this one harder than this one?”
Yes or no?
Technorati Tags: puzzle teaser question fundamentals phrasing
Yes. Maybe. 🙂
Nobody knows?
Ok, here’s the answer:
(1) The one you did after the one you did before this one IS this one.
In other words: (2) “….the puzzle you solved after you solved the puzzle you solved before you solved this one” IS this one.
(3) Hence, the question may be rephrased this way: “If the puzzle you solved before this one was harder than THIS ONE, was the puzzle you solved before this one harder than THIS ONE?”
(4) The answer to this question is obviously YES.