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?

first arrange the turtles as such

T1 T2 T3  (mirror)

now turtles 1 and 2 are intelligent  turtles and thus do not count the turtle 3 turtles they see in the mirror.  Turtle 3 however is not and thus can only recognize himself in the mirror and thus counts the reflected turtles as 2 more turtles behind him

Posted by Daniel on 2007-05-17 14:00:55