Originally posted by THUDandBLUNDERThat is what I said? Or am I missing your point?
Silver, eh? So you presumably believe that the anaconda is in the Gold chest.
Firstly, assume that the Gold inscription means 'one, and only one, inscription is true':
If the anaconda is in the Gold chest, then the Silver inscription is false, and the Gold inscription is indeterminate (if it is true, then it is true; and if it is false, then i ...[text shortened]... inscription is false, and the Gold inscription is again indeterminate, not true or false.
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I'd send in my hapless manservant Gachack to test the chest, whilst I hung back with my machinegun. If he opened the chest with the anaconda, I'd ventilate it (and Gachack too, if he got swallowed - I wouldn't want him to suffer, after all he makes a fantastic gin & tonic). If he opened the chest with the treasure, I'd blast his cabasa wide open, thereby leaving me with the treasure. Then I'd steal both chests, scavenge them for their precious metal, escape the doomed cave Indiana Jones-style, and live out my days baked in a cloud of opium in the basement of a Thai brothel.
It's the only logical course of action, I think.
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If the statement on the gold chest is true, then it is the one true statement, so the statement on the silver chest is false and you can open the silver chest.
If the statment on the gold chest is false, then it must mean there are 0 true statments (as there can't be 2), so the statement on the silver chest is false and you can open the silver chest.
Originally posted by iamatiger(welcome back - how are the twins?)
If the statement on the gold chest is true, then it is the one true statement, so the statement on the silver chest is false and you can open the silver chest.
If the statment on the gold chest is false, then it must mean there are 0 true statments (as there can't be 2), so the statement on the silver chest is false and you can open the silver chest.
There is nothing in the statement of the original puzzle that indicates that what is written on the outside of the chests has any relevance to what is inside the chests.
Assume you are a wild-life expert and you know how to deal with man-eating anacondas. You open both chests, subdue the anaconda, switch the contents of the chests, and then put them back where you found them. The inscriptions haven't mysteriously changed, and yet the contents are exactly opposite.
That is what I was trying to indicate (in a humorous way) in my previous post.
Originally posted by THUDandBLUNDERActually, I was assuming that since the chests are legendary, and that even the most long-lived anaconda would have to die in a "legendary" time frame, the only thing that I would find in the "wrong" chest, would be the dusty remains of a long-dead snake. Hence, pick one randomly, and if it's the wrong one, then open the other one.
And you're assuming that what's in the chests makes no difference.
Seems like you are too eager to get to grips with an anaconda's plumbing.
😛
If you want to assume the anaconda is mythically long-lived, see my previous post which I think explains why the writing on the chest is irrelevant, and you really only have a 50-50 chance.
Beside which, let's see that anaconda get past my handy wrench! ðŸ˜