Thread: New riddle

And it is as relevant as the diameter of the hole in a lifesaver

While Bob's answer is technically entirely correct, there is another, less obvious answer that I was after...

10

None - it only contains numbers ?

The correct answer is "A post box." The number of letters contained in the box is unable to be acsertained without opening the box and counting the letters.


OR


42

Originally Posted by Tristan Croll

A real riddle:

How many letters does the correct answer to this question contain?

Four, because the word four has four letters

I must be really dumb cause I don't see how the answer could be possible and make sense:confused:

Gemi,

not had it confirmed that I am right but I feel pretty confident that it is four.

The question is:
How many letters does the correct answer to this question contain?

So the correct answer is a number that has the same number of letters as the number itself so:
one has 3 letters
two has 3 letters
three has 5 letters
four has 4 letters
five has 4 letters
six has 3 letters
etc

So the answer is four

Originally Posted by simon C

The question is:
How many letters does the correct answer to this question contain?

So the correct answer is a number that has the same number of letters as the number itself so:

It requires quite a leap of logic to say that the correct answer is a number that has the same number of letters as the number itself. I, along with the beautiful dancer, cannot follow that line of reasoning.

How the hell do we get to four to get to 4. :confused:

I can't not see no logic there at all!

Simon C has it. In order to satisfy the question, the answer must describe itself - i.e. it must contain the same number of letters as the number it states. This answer insn't unique, though. Another possible answer is:

"This correct answer to the question contains fifty-four letters."

Originally Posted by Tristan Croll

In order to satisfy the question, the answer must describe itself - i.e. it must contain the same number of letters as the number it states.

Sorry Tristan, but I still do not see why the answer MUST describe itself. Nor why it must have the same number of letters as the number states. I am sure that I must be missing something. Could you please put it into VERY simple logic form for me.

The question is:
How many letters does the WRONG answer to this question contain?
Is the answer still four or any number BUT four?

Ok, the question is asking "how many letters" so the answer has to be a number, right? Now, if I was to answer "three" then I would in essence be saying that the word "three" contains three letters, which is obviously wrong. The only number that does fit is "four".
I'll admit it is a bit ambiguous as written. Another possible answer, for example, is 0 (the number zero obviously contains zero letters).
How about an improvement:
The answer to this question is the name of a number. How many letters does it contain?

How many letters does the WRONG answer to this question contain?

There is no answer to this question. In order to be a correct answer, it would have to simultaneously be incorrect.

Maybe we should move on. My head hurts.

I'll admit it is a bit ambiguous as written. Another possible answer, for example, is 0 (the number zero obviously contains zero letters).

OK, call me stupid if ya wanna. BUT when I went to school I'm pretty sure the number four, "4" contained zero letters, which kinda doesn't fit with your explaination.