Riddles

[Montreal Wanderer]

Smith is the engineer!

(or am I wrong?)

No, I think you are correct but what a fireman, a brakeman and an engineer are doing on a British train I'm not quite sure.

[communistworkethic]

There are plenty of steam trains still in Britain, Monty. There was also nothing wrong with the riddle either, there were 6 people on the train - 2 of each name.

Answer
1. Mr. Robinson lives in Durham and the brakeman's nearest neighbor earns exactly 3 times as much as the brakeman. Therefore, neither Mr. Robinson nor Mr. Jones are the brakeman's nearest neighbor, so it must be Mr. Smith.
2. Smith beats the fireman at billiards and the passenger whose name is the same as the brakeman's lives in Chester. Mr. Robinson lives in Durham and Mr. Smith lives between Chester and Durham. Therefore, it must be Mr. Jones who lives in Chester and Durham is the brakeman.
3. Smith is not the brakeman and he is not the fireman. He must be the engineer.

[Pete]

There are plenty of steam trains still in Britain, Monty. There was also nothing wrong with the riddle either, there were 6 people on the train - 2 of each name.

Answer
1. Mr. Robinson lives in Durham and the brakeman's nearest neighbor earns exactly 3 times as much as the brakeman. Therefore, neither Mr. Robinson nor Mr. Jones are the brakeman's nearest neighbor, so it must be Mr. Smith.
2. Smith beats the fireman at billiards and the passenger whose name is the same as the brakeman's lives in Chester. Mr. Robinson lives in Durham and Mr. Smith lives between Chester and Durham. Therefore, it must be Mr. Jones who lives in Chester and Durham is the brakeman.
3. Smith is not the brakeman and he is not the fireman. He must be the engineer.

A simple 'correct Pete' would have done

[TANGODANCER]

On a wall are 3 standard on/off switches. One (and only one) controls a light bulb inside a light-tight, well-insulated closet. The other two switches do nothing. You can only open the closet door once, and cannot touch/change any switches after the door is open (or re-closed, for that matter). Damaging or disassembling the door, walls, or switches is against the rules.

Within these constraints, can you determine with certainty which switch controls the light bulb?

[communistworkethic]

The thing that jumps out is that £20K isn't 'exactly' divisible by three, but beyond that I can't be arsed!

you're right it's not, but who's dividing it by 3??

[mummywhycantieatcrayons]

On a wall are 3 standard on/off switches. One (and only one) controls a light bulb inside a light-tight, well-insulated closet. The other two switches do nothing. You can only open the closet door once, and cannot touch/change any switches after the door is open (or re-closed, for that matter). Damaging or disassembling the door, walls, or switches is against the rules.

Within these constraints, can you determine with certainty which switch controls the light bulb?

Yes.

Press switch one and leave it for, say, half an hour.

Then, flick switch one off and press switch two down.

Open the closet.


If it's off but warm, it's switch one. If it's on, it's switch two. If it's neither on nor warm, it's switch three.

[mummywhycantieatcrayons]

The thing that jumps out is that £20K isn't 'exactly' divisible by three, but beyond that I can't be arsed!

you're right it's not, but who's dividing it by 3??

Well, if Mr Jones were to be the man who earns 'exactly' three times that which the brakeman does, it would have to be divisible by three. £20K isn't divisible by three, so it's not him!

No?

[communistworkethic]

The thing that jumps out is that £20K isn't 'exactly' divisible by three, but beyond that I can't be arsed!

you're right it's not, but who's dividing it by 3??

Well, if Mr Jones were to be the man who earns 'exactly' three times that which the brakeman does, it would have to be divisible by three. £20K isn't divisible by three, so it's not him!

No?

No - it's even simpler than that. The passenger earns £20k, clearly he's not the brakeman.

[mummywhycantieatcrayons]

The thing that jumps out is that £20K isn't 'exactly' divisible by three, but beyond that I can't be arsed!

you're right it's not, but who's dividing it by 3??

Well, if Mr Jones were to be the man who earns 'exactly' three times that which the brakeman does, it would have to be divisible by three. £20K isn't divisible by three, so it's not him!

No?

No - it's even simpler than that. The passenger earns £20k, clearly he's not the brakeman.

But we're looking for the brakeman's neighbour.

[Pete]

The brakeman's nearest neighbor, one of the passengers, earns exactly three times as much as the brakeman.

it matters for when you're deciding who the brakeman's nearest neighbour is, as I said before. It's contained in point 1 of your solution.

[mummywhycantieatcrayons]

Without giving it any proper thought - as soon as I read the phrase "exactly 3 times" I expected that a number indivisible by three would be significant. £20,000 was that number!

[Pete]

Without giving it any proper thought - as soon as I read the phrase "exactly 3 times" I expected that a number indivisible by three would be significant. £20,000 was that number!

And the other bit that required a little more thought, was the phrase 'exactly half way'.

[communistworkethic]

[Pete]

to you too

[Montreal Wanderer]

There are plenty of steam trains still in Britain, Monty.

Perhaps, but when I lived in England a train driver drove the train, not an engineer, and the guard lived in the guard's van not a brakeman in the caboose. Still perhaps the UK has since adopted US terminology for these functions.

[communistworkethic]

So they didn't have engineers on trains in your day monty? Hmmm makes you wonder where ASLEF got its name, don't it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASLEF

[blurred]

So they didn't have engineers on trains in your day monty? Hmmm makes you wonder where ASLEF got its name, don't it?

What's 'The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe' got to do with trains?

[communistworkethic]

Leaves on the Lion!!!!!!!!! Of Course!!

[Montreal Wanderer]

So they didn't have engineers on trains in your day monty? Hmmm makes you wonder where ASLEF got its name, don't it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASLEF

Well, I was referring to modern usage not the C19th (not being quite as old as some would have). I can only quote the Oxford English Dictionary on this one.

b. Mod. One who has charge of a steam-engine; in England only with reference to marine engines; in U.S. often applied to the driver of a locomotive engine.

And brakeman?

[communistworkethic]

ASLEF is a current union so its use seems to be contemporary in that respect.

I'll also repeat the bit about the type of train, as you ignored that in your continuing effort to be a smart alec.

I should also point out that nobody gave a date or location for the events of the riddle, further making a nonsense of objections.

You really should learn to get over these things quicker so you didn't get the answer, it really was not a big deal, accept it rather than trying to challenge aspects of the riddle that had no relevance to the answer.