For you Joe Schmoe or any other bright thinkers

[Desardes]

I had posted this question a while back but i'll bring it back for you to take a stab at it.

"There are 23 prisoners that are moved to a new Penetentiary <i don't know...Alkatraz> and in this new prison there's a prison ward who likes playing alot of games....
The prison ward tells them that he controls the prison in a "weird" system and that he will play a small game with them and if the prisoners show alot of team work and strategy, he'll let 'em go....but if they lose, they stay forever.
The game is this. Each prisoner will be isolated from each other and confined into seperate quarters without knowing where the other is. That day, the prison ward will take each one out of their room <them the prisoners not knowing if he's the first one or not> and willt take them to a small room which has nothing except two switches. They can either go up or down <not connected to any light or anything of course> and to the least and most, he's gotta touch one. <So he can't refuse to touch one nor can he switch more than twice>. Then that prisoner will be taken back to his room but the prison ward has full liberty to pick any of the prisoners more than once, many a number of times in a row and so on, etc. <But to the least 2 times>. He, the prison gaurd, will continue to do this <be it more than one day; even a year> until all of the prisoners have finally entered that room. But when one of the prisoners finally looks up and tells the prison ward saying :Yes, everyone has already gone. Then the prison ward dude will let 'em all go.

first info: They don't know how the buttons will it initially be set in. So two maybe up or two down or one up and one down.

second: there is no communication between the two, they can't make little markings on walls, etc. etc. <something ingenious>

What's their game plan?

[joeschmoe]

sorry to disappoint, but while joeschmoe hasn't been around long enough to have seen that riddle on this forum, joeschmoe's alter ego has. that alter ego was banned, so I started using joeschmoe. however, back when the question was first posed, I didn't solve it myself. I just saw oneshot's answer. that's a great riddle, imo. :)

ps - I don't post in the rest of the forums because I feel a certain moderator doesn't want to follow the forum rules. thus it doesn't make sense to play against a stacked deck. however, I do enjoy reading the posts, and asking/solving riddles, so I use joeschmoe to post in this forum and to read the rest.

[unbiased]

Does each prisoner touch 1 switch each time?

Or can they touch both switches?

Unbiased

Originally posted by Desardes
I had posted this question a while back but i'll bring it back for you to take a stab at it.

"There are 23 prisoners that are moved to a new Penetentiary <i don't know...Alkatraz> and in this new prison there's a prison ward who likes playing alot of games....
The prison ward tells them that he controls the prison in a "weird" system and that he will play a small game with them and if the prisoners show alot of team work and strategy, he'll let 'em go....but if they lose, they stay forever.
The game is this. Each prisoner will be isolated from each other and confined into seperate quarters without knowing where the other is. That day, the prison ward will take each one out of their room <them the prisoners not knowing if he's the first one or not> and willt take them to a small room which has nothing except two switches. They can either go up or down <not connected to any light or anything of course> and to the least and most, he's gotta touch one. <So he can't refuse to touch one nor can he switch more than twice>. Then that prisoner will be taken back to his room but the prison ward has full liberty to pick any of the prisoners more than once, many a number of times in a row and so on, etc. <But to the least 2 times>. He, the prison gaurd, will continue to do this <be it more than one day; even a year> until all of the prisoners have finally entered that room. But when one of the prisoners finally looks up and tells the prison ward saying :Yes, everyone has already gone. Then the prison ward dude will let 'em all go.

first info: They don't know how the buttons will it initially be set in. So two maybe up or two down or one up and one down.

second: there is no communication between the two, they can't make little markings on walls, etc. etc. <something ingenious>

What's their game plan?

[Desardes]

only once

[unbiased]

but can they touch both switches once each?

or do they only get one chance to touch only one switch?

Originally posted by Desardes
only once

[joeschmoe]

...each inmate can only touch one switch each time he enters the room. now, the next time he enters the room, he can touch only one switch, though it doesn't have to be the switch he touched last time. as the warden can bring the same guy into the room 100 times in a row if he likes, the inmate has to touch 1 switch each time. he could touch the left switch 100 times, the right switch 100 times, or some mixture. hope that helps.

[LanceThrusterX]

Originally posted by Desardes
But when one of the prisoners finally looks up and tells the prison ward saying :Yes, everyone has already gone. Then the prison ward dude will let 'em all go.

first info: They don't know how the buttons will it initially be set in. So two maybe up or two down or one up and one down.

second: there is no communication between the two, they can't make little markings on walls, etc. etc. <something ingenious>

What's their game plan?

Every prisoner needs to say that "Yes, everyone has already gone." Nothing indicated there was any penalty for being wrong, and secondly, nothing indicated that the statement had to be accurate to get them released so the first prisoner who says that frees them all.

I'm a bright.

http://www.the-brights.net/

[never saw this challenge before, is that the answer?]

[joeschmoe]

Not what he's looking for. I'm an "abright."

[LanceThrusterX]

Who cares what he's 'looking for'? According to how he described the challenge, it works.

Restate the challenge correctly so it makes sense. And the head of the prison is a 'warden'.

[joeschmoe]

You asked "is that the answer." No, that is not the answer. Why ask that unless you care if it was the answer he's "looking for?"

The first time someone says "Yes, everyone has already gone," the warden will evaluate if that statement is true. If it is not true, all the prisoners will be in jail forever. If it is true, they will all go free. So, like many riddles, the question is how can you know that everyone has truly gone given the said rules.

I think that was implied in the original phrasing by the words "but if they lose, they stay forever." Thus, I think, it's obvious that it's possible to lose (be wrong).

[MalcomBanned4?]

From what I remember of oneshots answer; 1 man is the assigned counter, when he goes into the room he puts the left switch "up", everybody else puts the left switch down one time only. When the counter puts the left switch up 24 times, everybodies done.

[joeschmoe]

"<But to the least 2 times>." I think this means that everyone has to have been in the room twice before the counter says "everybody has been." This would make it like the original riddle that's floating around in a few places in these forums (search "prison switch").

[LanceThrusterX]

I care about an answer that works, but not if it is THE answer he was looking for. I see what you mean about 'lose and stay forever'. I was/am having problems with the syntax throughout the whole thing. I also thought though, that they have NO contact with each other anywhere once the challenge has started so I do not see how they show teamwork if they cannot communicate.

Did not mean to come off so frosty. My apologies.

[joeschmoe]

No problem. They can only communicate beforehand (to decide on a strategy) and through the switching of switches. That's the rub. How do you communicate with switches?