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Author Topic: A Riddle  (Read 7275 times)

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Mongo

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A Riddle
« on: September 20, 2011, 04:07:25 AM »

This riddle was posed to me and when I gave my answer I was told that I was a complete idiot.

I rather think that my answer was well reasoned and reflected the parameters that the riddle laid down.

It goes thusly...

Quote
On the first day of School.
A student was murdered. Who killed the student?

Choices :
English teacher says - i was having karaoke in another section
Science teacher says - i was dying my hair in the office
Math teacher says - i was resting from computing the grades
P.E. teacher says - my students and i were thumb wrestling
Guard says - i waz having a dance battle with the other guards

Who was the killer?

I'd like to hear other people's answers before I state my answer and my reasons for making it.

I'd also like to have people go over my answer and my reasoning to see if I am making a reasonable hypothesis or do I have my head so far up my backside that I am missing something that is blindingly obvious.
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Fox

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Re: A Riddle
« Reply #1 on: September 20, 2011, 07:22:37 AM »

If it is the first day of school, why would the math teacher have any grades to compute?  I go with math teacher.
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Ghost Wolf

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Re: A Riddle
« Reply #2 on: September 20, 2011, 08:43:43 AM »

No idea, but it sounds to me like they all need to be fired.  :whistle:
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Tirya

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Re: A Riddle
« Reply #3 on: September 20, 2011, 09:04:18 AM »

I'm with Fox  - it's the first day, what is there to grade?
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Re: A Riddle
« Reply #4 on: September 20, 2011, 11:05:42 AM »

I do like the reasoning behind picking the math teacher.

Though, all of the other 4 teachers/guard are doing non-school activities (at school) in their statements.
You could make a case against any of the 5 people, with their "excuses" that are given.
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Fox

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Re: A Riddle
« Reply #5 on: September 20, 2011, 11:48:08 AM »

Wookie has a very good point there about the activities (though I must note that this whole riddle kinda just doesn't make any sense because of the responses). 

Based on the specific activities stated, you could easily assume that science and math teacher did it together as they were the only ones who implied they were alone based on their statements.  The other three teachers activities make the assumption that they were with other people.  Though, the english teacher could have been doing Karaoke alone.  My other thoughts about the english teacher was that the statement was "I was having karaoke..." rather than "doing" which could make one think they were either ignorant of what karaoke really is and are in fact lying about what they were doing or that they are just a horrible english teacher.  That was actually my first impression, but when I thought it through, I somehow lost why the wording bothered me and went with the math teacher instead.  Now I'm thinking english teacher.

Hmmm... intresting...

I can't wait to hear what you came up with, Mongo!
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Ghost Wolf

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Re: A Riddle
« Reply #6 on: September 20, 2011, 01:40:30 PM »

I took "having" karaoke to mean that it was a class activity.
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Mongo

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Re: A Riddle
« Reply #7 on: September 20, 2011, 03:22:52 PM »

The thing that I saw in this "riddle" was that there was nothing that either implicated anyone as the "Top Suspect" or exonerated any one of them.

English teacher - The Karaoke was not clearly stated as being done with anyone else there. As far as we know this was just some letting loose some steam during a break. So if there are people there this is either a valid alibi or the other witnesses to the alibi are lying to cover her lie. If there was no one there then this is either her way of taking a break or is a lie about her activities.

No smoking gun here.

Science teacher says - Dying one's hair is easy to prove or disprove. Hair dyes are very obvious by their smell and/or the boldness of the hair color. So if the person did dye their hair, that is not an alibi, but is an account of their activities. However since depending on how long it takes to dye  the hair (45 minutes to an hour for long hair on average, shorter for short styles) there could still be time to dye one's hair and still commit the murder.

It's a wash. Suspect perhaps but not the obvious murder.

Math teacher says - This is the one where I was called a stupid idiot at best (and the worst I will not mention here). Everyone who says "First day of school, what grades?" is missing out on the point that I remember the "Well kids, it's the first day back from Summer Vacation, let's see how much you remember from last year" pop quizzes that some teachers nail you with on day one. Even more so with standardized testing (don't get me started on that fiasco). So the teacher could be telling the truth and could be doing grades from the earlier periods or she could be lying to cover her butt.

Still a person of interest, but not worthy of hauling off in handcuffs right there and then.

P.E. teacher says - This is the least likely in my eyes. After all there is a classroom of witnesses to the alibi. However this does not clear the person since they were in a room with students. This person could have killed the student and intimidated the rest to lie to cover the murder. Wouldn't be the first time.

So you have someone who has an alibi but it may or may not be true.

Guard says - Again someone with an alibi, but like the Gym and Math Teachers above, this may not be true. The witnesses could be lying.

No smoking gun.

You can argue that anyone of them could be the killer based on the parameters of the riddle. You could also argue that none of them did it using the same parameters.

This riddle lacks enough information to answer it one way or another.

And I was called an idiot for not jumping on the "IT'S THE MATH TEACHER!!! THEY'RE THE GUILTY BUGGER!" bandwagon.
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Re: A Riddle
« Reply #8 on: September 20, 2011, 03:45:07 PM »

I think that is where the problem lies in this whole thing Mongo.  A riddle is designed to make you think and ferret out the truth through carefully worded distractions and this doesn't really qualify.  There just isn't enough information to go on, so most people (myself included) will jump to the obvious discrepancy in the information that was presented.  For me, that really kind of takes the fun out of it as I ADORE riddles and love to try and solve problems (so much so it drives hubby nuts when I have the plot of a show or movie figured out within the first third of what we've seen and ruin the rest of it for him), but this one just doesn't really have enough information for a solution, only a guess.

BTW... did the person that gave this to you provide an answer (other than to call you and idiot)?  I'm curious to know what was supposed to have been correct and why.
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Mongo

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Re: A Riddle
« Reply #9 on: September 20, 2011, 05:01:42 PM »

IT WAS supposed to be the math teacher since obviously no teacher could EVER have any classwork to grade on the first day back from class.

But since I poked open the flaws in logic of the puzzle the person decided to call me a mindless Twit (swap out an "A" in there for what I was really called).
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Re: A Riddle
« Reply #10 on: September 20, 2011, 05:07:27 PM »

Sheesh!  No wonder it was so bad!  :laughfit:

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Ghost Wolf

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Re: A Riddle
« Reply #11 on: September 20, 2011, 06:22:21 PM »

The whole thing was kind of dumb.  :whistle:
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