Paradox pop quiz !

[drakedee]

so im browsin a boredom type site..you know the kind that gives you things to do when your sittin at work focused on anything but that ...

and came across this...

1. Crocodile Sophism
A slim crocodile living in the Nile took a child. Mother begged to give him back. The crocodile could not only talk, he was also a great sophist, and so he stated: "If you guess, what I will do with him, I will return him. However, if you don't guess his fate I'll eat him." What statement shall the mother make to save her child (what about a vicious circle of crocs ? )

Ive thought and thought... but cant grasp it..

Anyone ?.. Anyone ?... Buellar ?

[Sam988]

Originally Posted by drakedee

1. Crocodile Sophism
A slim crocodile living in the Nile took a child. Mother begged to give him back. The crocodile could not only talk, he was also a great sophist, and so he stated: "If you guess, what I will do with him, I will return him. However, if you don't guess his fate I'll eat him." What statement shall the mother make to save her child (what about a vicious circle of crocs ? )

Ive thought and thought... but cant grasp it..

Anyone ?.. Anyone ?... Buellar ?

simple (not wanting to brag myself but doing so but i got the answer after 1 min of thinking.. it is rather easy i guess)


The mother must say "You will eat him" because if that was actually not what the crocodile would do with the child, then he would eat the child as he said, but when he was going to eat the child, he would be doing exactly what the mother said he would do, so he would have to return the child to the mother

[JimC]

This makes my brain hurt.

Just eat the crocodile.

[bluesharpist101]

Sam98's response is correct, however another response could be you will give him back to me, because the crocodile will give the baby back just as she predicted he would.

[Ilya]

This quiz comes in different versions. But I've never seen the crocodile version.
At some point, when I realized that I'm not very good at solving logical puzzles, I've bought a book filled with different puzzles and cheated. I've read the puzzle, thought about it and if I couldn't solve it soon enough I looked up the answer. How evil of me!
But I didn't stop there. Then, knowing the answer, I would think about the limitations of my thinking that didn't let me to solve the puzzle in the first place.
After some practice, I became much better with this kind of problems.

[ZHereford]

Originally Posted by bluesharpist101

Sam98's response is correct, however another response could be you will give him back to me, because the crocodile will give the baby back just as she predicted he would.

This seems like a catch 22 question.

The crocodile is already stating his intention of wanting to eat the child by saying he would eat it if the answer is incorrect, so I agree with bluesharpist101 that the mother must say 'you will give him back to me'. She is actually deciding the fate of the child.

[A.K.Light]

All she has to do is guess. He didn't say she had to be correct. He's simply saying that if she guesses, she gets the child back, and if she doesn't make a guess, he's going to eat the child.

Of course, that doesn't make sense, (why would the crocodile do that? but then again, why would he talk or play games?) but it's sad that I have to run around assuming that everybody is not asking real questions, but trick questions. Well, not really sad. I'm amused.