Parlor Game Possible Bug

[Arcanestomper]

I just found a parlor room where one of the boxes was blank. This turned the puzzle from logic to a guessing game. I'm not sure if this is an intended possibility or a bug.

It was a white box if that helps.

[Forblaze]

What were the other two clues? I've seen a blank clue before but it was still solvable.

[Jabroni]

I've gotten them all so far. Blank wouldn't make it impossible with the right clues

[TheLastDesperado]

I've had one blank statement puzzle that I didn't get. And another I did. After having done the second, I feel like I probably just didn't read the clues on the other two boxes carefully enough.

Remember to bear in mind that at least 1 will always be true, and at least 1 will always be false. So with the blank one there, that means the other two are the false and true boxes.

[Arcanestomper]

"The gems are in a box with the word blue" on the blue box and "The gems are in a box that is blue." on the black box.

The first clue would be true if the gems were in either the blue or black boxes. The second clue would only be true if it was in the blue box.

Thinking about it some more if the gems were in the blue box it would make both of them true. Which would invalidate the one must be false rule. But the blank box through me off. I wasn't sure how to evaluate it.

[Zombra]

Originally posted by TheLastDesperado:

Remember to bear in mind that at least 1 will always be true, and at least 1 will always be false. So with the blank one there, that means the other two are the false and true boxes.

That's not quite right.

"There will always be at least one box which displays only true statements.
There will always be at least one box which displays only false statements."

Imagine there are three men in a room. You are told that one only speaks honest words and another only lies. But if a man isn't saying anything, he could be either one. A blank box could be either one.

[Arcanestomper]

Yeah that's essentially what got me. I didn't know if the blank box was a truth or lie.

[kory]

Originally posted by Zombra:

Originally posted by TheLastDesperado:

Remember to bear in mind that at least 1 will always be true, and at least 1 will always be false. So with the blank one there, that means the other two are the false and true boxes.

That's not quite right.

"There will always be at least one box which displays only true statements.
There will always be at least one box which displays only false statements."

Imagine there are three men in a room. You are told that one only speaks honest words and another only lies. But if a man isn't saying anything, he could be either one. A blank box could be either one.

You misunderstand. A man who is silent is not telling a true statement, and there will always be a a box that tells a true statement.
Note the different between "says a true statement" and "all statements they say are true", the first requires a statement and the statement to be true, the second does not require a statement.

[Zombra]

Originally posted by kory:

There will always be a a box that tells a true statement.

Again, the rule is "There will always be at least one box which displays only true statements." This is exactly equivalent to "There will always be at least one man who speaks only true statements."

If the man (or box) makes no statement at all, he (or it) does not break the rule as written.

[kory]

Originally posted by Zombra:

Originally posted by kory:

There will always be a a box that tells a true statement.

Again, the rule is "There will always be at least one box which displays only true statements." This is exactly equivalent to "There will always be at least one man who speaks only true statements."

If the man (or box) makes no statement at all, he (or it) does not break the rule as written.

A box with no statement is not displaying a true statement. There will always be a box displaying a true statement.

[Zombra]

Originally posted by kory:

There will always be a box displaying a true statement.

That's really, really not the rule. The rule is "There will always be at least one box which displays only true statements," which means something different.

But you know what, if you didn't read the rule the first two times, you're not going to now. Have a lovely day.

[Jakkauli]

Originally posted by Arcanestomper:

"The gems are in a box with the word blue" on the blue box and "The gems are in a box that is blue." on the black box.

The first clue would be true if the gems were in either the blue or black boxes. The second clue would only be true if it was in the blue box.

Thinking about it some more if the gems were in the blue box it would make both of them true. Which would invalidate the one must be false rule. But the blank box through me off. I wasn't sure how to evaluate it.

Black box = false
Blue box = true

If the black box is false, =the gems are not in the blue box, but it could be in the blank box.
However, because there has to be one true statement, it has to be blue because the blank box is not making a statement, therefore the gems are in the black box.

[Jakkauli]

Originally posted by Zombra:

Originally posted by kory:

There will always be a box displaying a true statement.

That's really, really not the rule. The rule is "There will always be at least one box which displays only true statements," which means something different.

But you know what, if you didn't read the rule the first two times, you're not going to now. Have a lovely day.

I mean you're flat out wrong if you're claiming a blank box is either true or false. It's neither as it's not claiming anything. You have to claim something so we can determine whether it's true or false.

[I. M. Meen]

Originally posted by Arcanestomper:

"The gems are in a box with the word blue" on the blue box and "The gems are in a box that is blue." on the black box.

The first clue would be true if the gems were in either the blue or black boxes. The second clue would only be true if it was in the blue box.

Thinking about it some more if the gems were in the blue box it would make both of them true. Which would invalidate the one must be false rule. But the blank box through me off. I wasn't sure how to evaluate it.

One of the boxes has to be lying. Saying nothing at all is not lying any more than somebody can lie to you while they're asleep, therefore the white box with nothing on it doesn't count. Now suppose it's the blue box: then the gems cannot be in a box with the word blue in it. BUT the black box says that the gems are in a box that is blue, which can't be true because of our assumption. So where's the box that's telling the truth? It can't be the black box, and it can't be the white box either because it's not saying anything. You have a contradiction with the above assumption, which means that the blue box has to be telling the truth.

Now of course you're still wondering where the gems are, but remember the part where the white box doesn't count as a liar? That means it has to be the black box lying to you, telling you that the gems are in a box that is blue. The black box has the gems in it.

[I. M. Meen]

More simply, if the gems were in the blue box, as you've noticed the only way it would fit the rules is if somehow the white box counted as a liar when it might as well be replaced with a rock for all the logical impact it has due to having no statements of its own.

[Zombra]

Originally posted by I. M. Meen:

One of the boxes has to be lying.

That's not the rule. The rule does not say "one box has a lie written on it". The rule is that one of the boxes only tells lies, which is different.

If I say I "only eat Italian food", that does not mean I am always shoveling Italian food in my mouth every second of every day.* It means that when I eat, I eat Italian food. If I am not eating anything at the moment, it can still be true that I only eat Italian food.

*Though sometimes I wish I could. It's so delicious!