the worlds hardest riddle

it has 7 letters, greater than god, more evil than the devil, poor people have it, rich people need it, if you eat it you will die

lets see if u guys can figure this riddle out

I got it, but I heard it before.duxup

Here it is if u don't get it.

[spoiler] Nothing [/spoiler]

[QUOTE="Brutal_Elitegs"][QUOTE="spazzx625"] Yup, nice work :)spazzx625

I've heard this riddle tons of times. If you want a really mind-bending riddle, try this one that there was a big OT thread about some time ago:

(The rest of this post is edited because theversion I posted originally was somewhat ambiguous)

A group of people with assorted eye colors live on an island. They are all perfect logicians -- if a conclusion can be logically deduced, they will do it instantly. No one knows the color of their eyes. Every night at midnight, a ferry stops at the island. Any islanders who have figured out the color of their own eyes then leave the island, and the rest stay. Everyone can see everyone else at all times and keeps a count of the number of people they see with each eye color (excluding themselves), but they cannot otherwise communicate. Everyone on the island knows all the rules in this paragraph.

On this island there are 100 blue-eyed people, 100 brown-eyed people, and the Guru (she happens to have green eyes). So any given blue-eyed person can see 100 people with brown eyes and 99 people with blue eyes (and one with green), but that does not tell him his own eye color; as far as he knows the totals could be 101 brown and 99 blue. Or 100 brown, 99 blue, and he could have red eyes.

The Guru is allowed to speak once (let's say at noon), on one day in all their endless years on the island. Standing before the islanders, she says the following:

"I can see someone who has blue eyes."

Who leaves the island, and on what night?


There are no mirrors or reflecting surfaces, nothing dumb. It is not a trick question, and the answer is logical. It doesn't depend on tricky wording or anyone lying or guessing, and it doesn't involve people doing something silly like creating a sign language or doing genetics. The Guru is not making eye contact with anyone in particular; she's simply saying "I count at least one blue-eyed person on this island who isn't me."

The Guru, because she's a woman.

-Misanthropic-

Anyway, I think there is a detail that is needed for this riddle that is not actually stated in it and that is that knowing their own eye color is the only reason someone leaves the island.

I've heard this riddle tons of times. If you want a really mind-bending riddle, try this one that there was a big OT thread about some time ago:

There is an island that is considered to be paradise. All the inhibitants of the island are Perfect Logicians, and every knows of every that they are Perfect Logicans.

Exactly 100 of these persons have blue eyes, 100 have brown eyes, and 1 has green eyes. The inhibitants do not know what his/her color eyes is. Everyone is constantly aware of everyone elses eye color but no person knows that there are 100 blue eyed, 100 brown eyed, and 1 green eyed person on the island.

If a person finds out his/her own eye color she/he must leave the island at midnight of the day she/he finds out! There are no mirrors or reflections of any kind on the island. Also, nobody on the island ever speaks except the Guru, who is the person with the green eyes, (she does not know her eye color and if she found out she would have to leave the island at midnight). The Guru says one sentence every fifty years. One day the Guru arrives and tells everyone on the island the following: "I SEE SOMEONE WITH BLUE EYES."

Who (if anyone) leaves the island and when?

SpaceMoose

[QUOTE="-Misanthropic-"] The Guru, because she's a woman.

SpaceMoose

Anyway, I think there is a detail that is needed for this riddle that is not actually stated in it and that is that knowing their own eye color is the only reason someone leaves the island.

Either nobody, or everybody would leave (Except the guru) because nobody is aware of their own eye colour.

If they were perfectly logical, I would say no one since she addressed the whole crowd they wouldn't know who she was looking at. I'll roll with that answer. guynamedbilly

Nope. Major hint here. This will pretty much give away the answer actually. (It is not additional information though):

[spoiler] Change the paramaters of the riddle. Start with a small number of blue-eyed people and figure that out. Work your way up from that. [/spoiler]

For the island one:

Got it!

[spoiler] 100 blue eyed people on the 100th night [/spoiler]

[QUOTE="guynamedbilly"]If they were perfectly logical, I would say no one since she addressed the whole crowd they wouldn't know who she was looking at. I'll roll with that answer. SpaceMoose

Nope. Major hint here. This will pretty much give away the answer actually. (It is not additional information though):

Does it have anything to do with every blue eyed person noticing others with blue eyes?

[QUOTE="SpaceMoose"]

[QUOTE="guynamedbilly"]If they were perfectly logical, I would say no one since she addressed the whole crowd they wouldn't know who she was looking at. I'll roll with that answer. -Misanthropic-

Nope. Major hint here. This will pretty much give away the answer actually. (It is not additional information though):

Does it have anything to do with every blue eyed person noticing others with blue eyes?

As stated in the riddle, everyone is constantly aware of the eye color of everyone else.

[spoiler] Yes, it does. [/spoiler]

For the island one:

Got it!

....

darkhorse286

[QUOTE="darkhorse286"]

For the island one:

Got it!

....

SpaceMoose

Ah, your version is different from the ony I read which said that everyone knew how many of each color there were. Still, I think there's some detail missing from the initial riddle.

Edit:2 I think everyone else is bored of the riddle. :( But, I understand the solution given, I just don't think it's the best solution and thus shouldn't be the accepted answer to the riddle. It would be much easier to physically group everyone together and they all leave when they have that straight. It's like describing to someone how to paint a house. You could tell the person that he needs a strong straw to suck up the paint and then blow it on the side of the house. This would work, but it's a dumb way to do it.

ISLAND RIDDLE SPOILERS AHEAD. It would be nice if spoiler tags ever worked right anymore instead of constantly giving me these stupid unclosed tags errors.

First of all, they don't know how many of each there are. They ALMOST do because they can see everyone else's, but as far as any of the logicians are concerned, their own eyes could be any color, blue, brown, gree, purple, pink, orange, whatever.

I didn't get the explanation from whatever site. I figured out the answer myself. Well, to be technical about it, someone said what the answer was in the original thread on this and I accidentally read it, but then I figured out how they got theremyself. Even after I figured it out it bothered me for a while and I still doubted it. It works though:

Suppose there are only two blue-eyed logicians. The Guru says there are two. Each of them knows that there is either one or two. When each of the blue-eyed logicians sees that the other one does not leave on the first day, they know that they must also have blue eyes. Therefore they both leave on the second day. Logicians with other colors know that there are either two or three. When they see two leave then there is no reason for them to leave. They don't know what color their own eyes are. They only know that they are NOT blue.

Now suppose there are three. Now each of them knows there are at least two, and they are waiting to see if the other two leave as they did in the above scenario. If they don't, then they know that they also have blue eyes.

Now suppose there are four. Now each of them waits to see what the three do on the third day.

You can keep doing this up to 100. Crazy, but it works. I told you it was mind-bending.

As old as the internet
Spoils-

Nothing

Edit:2 I think everyone else is bored of the riddle. :( But, I understand the solution given, I just don't think it's the best solution and thus shouldn't be the accepted answer to the riddle. It would be much easier to physically group everyone together and they all leave when they have that straight. It's like describing to someone how to paint a house. You could tell the person that he needs a strong straw to suck up the paint and then blow it on the side of the house. This would work, but it's a dumb way to do it.

guynamedbilly

A group of people with assorted eye colors live on an island. They are all perfect logicians -- if a conclusion can be logically deduced, they will do it instantly. No one knows the color of their eyes. Every night at midnight, a ferry stops at the island. Any islanders who have figured out the color of their own eyes then leave the island, and the rest stay. Everyone can see everyone else at all times and keeps a count of the number of people they see with each eye color (excluding themselves), but they cannot otherwise communicate. Everyone on the island knows all the rules in this paragraph.

On this island there are 100 blue-eyed people, 100 brown-eyed people, and the Guru (she happens to have green eyes). So any given blue-eyed person can see 100 people with brown eyes and 99 people with blue eyes (and one with green), but that does not tell him his own eye color; as far as he knows the totals could be 101 brown and 99 blue. Or 100 brown, 99 blue, and he could have red eyes.

The Guru is allowed to speak once (let's say at noon), on one day in all their endless years on the island. Standing before the islanders, she says the following:

"I can see someone who has blue eyes."

Who leaves the island, and on what night?


There are no mirrors or reflecting surfaces, nothing dumb. It is not a trick question, and the answer is logical. It doesn't depend on tricky wording or anyone lying or guessing, and it doesn't involve people doing something silly like creating a sign language or doing genetics. The Guru is not making eye contact with anyone in particular; she's simply saying "I count at least one blue-eyed person on this island who isn't me."

They could close their eyes if they didn't want to leave. I thought there was probably some kind of consequence for them not leaving if they did have the blue eyes. Grouping together would entail no more communication than would be needed to get everyone to allow you to stand still so each person could look into each others eyes. guynamedbilly

Nobody said that they either DO or DON'T want to leave, but they HAVE TO leave if they know their own eye color. Once the guru says this, they will figure it out. It doesn't matter if they care about the answer or not. They will just know it when the time comes, because it is the logical conclusion, and they are perfect logicians and therefore cannot avoid figuring it out. (Obviously there is no such thing as a perfect logician in reality.)

You don't need to communicate to see something. You need to communicate to group. They aren't standing around so that everyone can see everyone else's eyes. Presumably they already know because they've already seen the eyes of everyone else on the island before. Nobody said they were clones or something; it's not like every time they see someone they don't know if that's someone they already saw before or not. It really doesn't matter how they know. They just do. Saying that they could close their eyes is irrelevant since it has already been stated that they already know everyone else's eye color. It doesn't say WHY they do and it really doesn't mater.

This is all really missing the point, and the point is that with the knowledge they have, knowing the rules of the island, this statement of something which is completely obvious will tell them all whether their own eyes are blue or not in due time.

Is it... Pokemon?

That's so simple.

[spoiler] t's Nothing. :P [/spoiler]