Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
214,709
edits
Fox-Chicken-Grain Puzzle: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
m (Mass update links) |
No edit summary |
||
| (9 intermediate revisions by 4 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|'''''RATS!''' Your goose is cooked!''|a failure message from one computer version of this puzzle}}
Line 19:
This is an ancient puzzle. The oldest known example was found in ''Propositiones ad Acuendos Juvenes'', which dates to the late ninth century.
A more complicated version, but which operates on much the same principle, involves a barrier (usually a bridge), four people who all move at different rates, and some item that is required in order to cross the barrier (most often a flashlight). The puzzle is to get all the people across within a specified amount of time, which seems to be too short. Probably the most well-known version of this is:
{{quote|
The flashlight must be walked back and forth: it cannot be thrown, etc. Each man walks at a different speed. A pair must walk together at the speed of the slower man. Man 1 needs 1 minute to cross the bridge, man 2 needs 2 minutes, man 3 needs 5 minutes, and man 4 needs 10 minutes. For example, if man 1 and man 3 walk across together, they need 5 minutes. }}
{{quote|
The Answer: {{spoiler|Men 1 and 2 cross, 1 (or 2) returns, 3 and 4 cross, 2 (or 1) returns, 1 and 2 cross.}} }}
There's yet '''another''' variant called "Missionaries and Cannibals" where the poor missionaries get eaten if the number of cannibals are greater than theirs.
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* The cannibals and missionaries version is mentioned in ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]'', with wolves and sheep.
Line 42:
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
* In an episode of [[The BBC]]'s version of ''[[The Office]]'', Gareth and Tim are assigned to solve this puzzle as a problem-solving exercise. As always, Gareth complicates things by taking it literally...
{{quote|
'''Tim:''' He doesn't have a wife.
'''Gareth:''' All farmers have wives.
'''Tim:''' This one doesn't; he's gay.
'''Gareth:''' Well then, he shouldn't be allowed near animals, should he? }}
* Subverted in ''Beauty and the Geek''. The puzzle included a rowboat, a sack of grain and a toy chicken and fox. The solution was to take them all at once since toy animals don't eat each other.
* ''[[Mongrels]]'' references this in the first episode with Nelson the fox, his chicken "girlfriend" and a bag of grain they were eating. They solved it by knocking out the boat's owner and stealing it.
== [[Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game|MMORPG]]s ==
* ''[[
** The bridge type showed up in a recent quest.
* The free children's MMO ''[[Poptropica]]'' has a puzzle involving this.
== Music ==
* ''[http://www.songworm.com/lyrics/songworm-parody/WolfHenandCorn.html Wolf, Hen, and Corn]'' is a filk about this.
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
* Parodied in a ''[[Dilbert]]'' [http://dilbert.com/strip/2003-11-27
== [[Video Games]] ==
Line 68 ⟶ 71:
* In a subquest in ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]'', in order to make one of the cockatrice go back home, you must transport the cockatrice, a wolf and the boy across a river.
* An [[Adobe Flash]] game has a more complex variant [http://jayisgames.com/archives/2006/06/raft_iq_puzzle.php involving a raft, eight people and a convoluted set of rules]. [[Tropes Will Ruin Your Life|Good luck!]]
* The obscure dating game ''Sprung'' on the [[Nintendo DS]] had a variation to this on Brett's story. At one point Brett will be asked to go to Sanctuary with Becky, where he will bring his buds Lucas and Danny while she brings Alex and Erica. The catch, however, is that Becky wants a calmer night, so she doesn't want any funny business ([[Fridge Logic|nevermind that Sanctuary is a raving night club where the nameless other people not mentioned in the game are probably doing just that]]). The puzzle comes where Brett meets everyone but Becky at the front of the club and he has to get all of them inside one by one. However, if Lucas and Alex or Danny and Erica are left alone and Brett comes back to them later, he will catch them making out, leading to Becky to see this, her announcing the night was ''ruined'' and you getting slapped with a game over. The puzzle is extended further because it's not only a matter of getting everyone inside, but also a matter of keeping everyone happy which means a lot of shuffling out people whom are already fine inside (such as dragging Danny out because he gets panicked over the sight of too many people, or dragging Lucas out for pep talk). Further rules are also added as time marches on, including how the aforementioned couples ''can'' later be left alone without problems after an event happens where Brett talks them down, or how new pairings are made that ''can't'' be left alone without you interfering with them (such as how, at one point, Danny and Lucas will fight if left alone).
* Appears as a series of wood-inlay pictures on a puzzle box in ''[[Nancy Drew (video game)|Nancy Drew]]: The Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon''. It uses a dog, a cat and a bird, presumably because a bag of grain would be hard to identify in silhouette. Nancy deduces the animals' starting side ''for'' you, from no clues whatsoever!
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* Referenced in ''[[Xkcd]]'' [http://xkcd.com/589/ some time ago].
* ''[[Full Frontal Nerdity]]''
== [[Web Original]] ==
* [[Cleolinda Jones]] describes ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]'' thus:
{{quote|
* The Internet comedy duo BriTANicK used this as the starting point for one of their videos, wherein Brian asks Nick a number of brainteasers. Not that Brian cares about the answers; he's just obsessed with stealing Nick's Klondike bar, and the thought of Nick making out with his girlfriend.
* IT specialist site thedailywtf.com references the more complicated version with the bridge and four men [http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Classic-WTF-Job-Interview-20-Now-With-Riddles!.aspx here] as the way to not do a job interview when looking for an IT specialist. Their prefered answer: leave the slow one behind!
Line 83 ⟶ 86:
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* One episode of ''[[Class of 3000]]'' had Sunny put his class through this task as training for an upcoming concert. Tamika lampshades it:
{{quote|
'''Sonny:''' What riddle? (Pulls curtain open, revealing a chicken, a coyote and a sack of corn) }}
** Eddie and Philly Phil manage to get through it in fewer than seven steps due to Eddie bribing the coyote with a $100 bill to not eat the chicken.
{{quote|
'''Eddie:''' [[Looney Tunes|If cartoon memory serves right, he's gonna use it to buy a pair of Acme Rocket Skates.]] }}
* Showed up in the 20th season ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|Simpsons]]'' episode "Gone Maggie Gone". Homer is trying to get across a river with Maggie, Santa's Little Helper (who is trying to tear up Maggie's doll), and a jar of candy-coated rat poison.
{{quote|
** In the same episode, Cletus asks Homer for help with getting a fox, duck and corn across, but then "the puzzle done worked itself out" when both the corn and the duck are eaten.
* In [[Space Ghost Coast to Coast]], such a puzzle was used as a means of describing the concept of "branding" (no, NOT like branding with a hot iron). In typical Space Ghost fashion, the puzzle was... less-than-helpful in explaining the concept.
{{quote|
'''Zorak:''' You mean, Clarence Clemmons?
'''Space Ghost:''' Of course. Now, the cow wants to transport Clarence across the river. But remember, the cow is on fire, and Clarence has no hands or bucket, so he has to untilize his hooks, ''[[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|and the mighty power of his saxophone]]!'' }}
** Note that no answer was given.
Line 99 ⟶ 102:
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Stock Puzzle]]
[[Category:
| |||