You are on an island and you meet three people, Jeswin, Parker and Crasbo. You know that they are either liars, knights or knaves (someone who alternates between truth and lie). They have a strange religion - for one half of the year they talk in English and for the other half they talk Gambalidarian (their language). Naturally, you arrive during the latter part of the year. You know that if you ask them what they are, they either say 'Blarg', 'Grot' or 'Cloysta', but you don't know which means what out of liar knight and knave. You also know that 'Jappa' means 'is a' and 'Bokka' means 'I am a'. They give the following statements:

Jeswin : Bokka Grot. Parker Jappa Cloysta.

Parker : Bokka Blarg. Crasbo Jappa Blarg.

Crasbo : Bokka Grot. Jeswin Jappa Cloysta.

What does Blarg, Grot and Cloysta mean in English, and what are each of the people?

Anytime a liar refers to himself, he cannot call himself a liar, so Grot and Blarg cannot mean liar. Then if you assume Blarg means Knight, and do the tables, you realize there is no solution, so Grot must be Knight, and Blarg must be Knave.

Blarg = Knave
Grot = Knight
Cloysta = Liar

With that, there are three solutions:
Solution 1:
If Jeswin is a knight, that means Parker is a liar, which means Crasbo can't be a Knave. Crasbo can't be a knight,since he calls jeswin a liar, so he has to be a liar as well.
Jeswin = Knight.
Parker = Liar.
Crasbo = Liar.

Solution 2:
If Jeswin is a Knave, then his first statement is a lie, so Parker must be a liar. Parker lies calling himself a knave, and lies calling crasbo a knave. Crasbo also can't be a knight, since he calls Jeswin a Liar, when in fact he is a Knave, so Crasbo must be a liar as well.

Jeswin = Knave
Parker = Liar
Crasbo = Liar.


Solution 3:
if Jeswin is a Liar, then Parker can't be a Liar. If Parker were a knight, he would be lying when calling Crasbo a knight, so Parker is a Knave, and he lied calling Crasbo a Knave.
Crasbo can't be a knave, and he can't be a liar, as his second statement is a truth, so he must be a Knight.

Jeswin = Liar
Parker = Knave
Crasbo = Knight.


If all three have to be different, then solution 3 is the answer, but if not, then any of the three will work.

Posted by kevin on 2003-10-30 17:12:35