Three turtles are lined up in a row. The first turtle said, "I've got 2 turtles behind me and no turtles in front of me." The second turtle said: "I've got 1 turtle behind me and 1 turtle in front of me." but the last turtle surprised the other two and said, "I've got 2 turtles behind me and 2 turtles in front of me."

How is that possible?

(In reply to solution by Robby Goetschalckx)

But if the turtle on the right is pointed to the right and the one on the left to the left, then their lines of sight are along the same line. The "two turtles behind" and "two turtles in front" add up to 5 in that line, while the first's "two turtles behind" allows for only 3.

Wouldn't it be best that the third turtle be oriented at right angles to the other two, in the middle of a line of 5, with the line of three intersecting it at that turtle?

Or, the "2 turtles behind" the third turtle might be behind him in time, of speaking, in the past tense, while the 2 in front are there physically by position.

But in any case turtles can't talk anyway, so there's a lot of explaining how that's possible.

Posted by Charlie on 2007-05-17 12:11:23