Question

Each inhabitant of a remote village always tells the truth or always lies. A villager willgive only a ""Yes"" or ""No"" response to a question a tourists asks. Suppose you are a tourist visiting this areaand come to a fork in the road. One branch leads to the ruins you want to visit; the other branch leads deepinto the jungle. A villager is standing at the fork in the road. What one question can you ask the villager todetermine which branch to take? Justify your answer.

Answer 1

Step-by-step explanation:

This is actually a very old riddle, but it is two guards and two doors life death .

So let's apply the same logic to this one.

You only meet one villager and you don't know if he is one of the ones who only tells the truth or always lies, to answer this riddle, the question is actually to an hypothetical third party, another villager, not present, this is a little convoluted so bear with me:

(Pointing to one of the roads): If I asked another villager if this road would lead me to the ruins, would he be correct?

If the villager is a truth one, the true-villager, would tell you that the liar-villager would say no (thus leading you to the jungle).

• Let's analyze this one, so the villager always tells the truth, and you happen to be pointing to the right direction (ruins), he is answering, that if you would ask another villager whether that is the correct road, that villager would say yes, since you are pointing at the right direction, a liar would tell you no, because the liar would point you to the other road as the correct (jungle), so the true-villager will say no

• If you happen to be pointing to the wrong direction (jungle), he is answering, that if you would ask another villager whether that is the correct road, that villager would say yes, since you are pointing at the wrong direction, the truth-villager would tell you no, because the liar would point you to the wrong road as the correct (jungle), so the villager will say no

Therefore, no matter what villager you run into, the question will always lead you to the jungle, and therefore you pick the other road.