Puzzles,conundrums, riddles and thoughts?

[Eran of Arcadia]

Avalanche of some sort?

 

[Sidhe]

A curious trial took place in Austria:
apparently, two aristorocrats, one of which has slighted the other through some kind of dishonouring, had taken it upon themselves to enact a duel, up in the Austrian Alps.
According to the remaining defendant's testimony, the two men had climbed onto different mountains, a mile apart, and were to, at exactly 6:00, fire off a shot at each other.
According to the sole witness, a climber just below the peak, he heard a single, polyphonic crack, and climbed to find the body of the dead man, a single round in his head, and a single round expended from his rifle.

A duel, would, of course, not be a murder trial, as it would be consentual, so manslaughter would be a more fitting charge. However, the state decided to prosecute for murder. Why?

The round was a blank? The other man had loaded his weapon with a blank before the duel took place, so that he could not have killed the first man, so the other was free to kill him safe in the knowledge he would not die? Just a guess?

Or both men fired and missed but the bullet in the man's head was from a different gun. Perhaps one of the men had arranged it so that even if he missed a third man could shoot the other and make it look like he'd hit him?

 

[ibn sina]

A curious trial took place in Austria:
apparently, two aristorocrats, one of which has slighted the other through some kind of dishonouring, had taken it upon themselves to enact a duel, up in the Austrian Alps.
According to the remaining defendant's testimony, the two men had climbed onto different mountains, a mile apart, and were to, at exactly 6:00, fire off a shot at each other.
According to the sole witness, a climber just below the peak, he heard a single, polyphonic crack, and climbed to find the body of the dead man, a single round in his head, and a single round expended from his rifle.

A duel, would, of course, not be a murder trial, as it would be consentual, so manslaughter would be a more fitting charge. However, the state decided to prosecute for murder. Why?

One of them shot before 6.00. The witness heard a single polyphnoic crack but one of the guys were a mile farther from the witness so the sound had travelled for several seconds before it reached the witness meaning that he had fired the bullet several seconds earlier (about 4,8s earlier to be precise).

 

[Riffraff]

think i've got the answer to this one.

The surviver fired his rifle early, as the climber would have otherwise heard two distinct gun shots. He heard only one though and was right by the dead dueler. It takes sound about 5 seconds to travel a mile, so the surviver fired his rifle that much earlier.

edit: grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

 

[Sidhe]

think i've got the answer to this one.

The surviver fired his rifle early, as the climber would have otherwise heard two distinct gun shots. He heard only one though and was right by the dead dueler. It takes sound about 5 seconds to travel a mile, so the surviver fired his rifle that much earlier.

edit: grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Aww that's so close. hard luck.

To be honest though if the guy fired later, you'd still hear two cracks, one when the first rifle was fired and another some seconds later when the other was fired, unless you timed it absolutely perfectly and the observer was in exactly the right place, but anyway I think Ibn is right

 

[nonconformist]

One of them shot before 6.00. The witness heard a single polyphnoic crack but one of the guys were a mile farther from the witness so the sound had travelled for several seconds before it reached the witness meaning that he had fired the bullet several seconds earlier (about 4,8s earlier to be precise).

Correct.

Hearing a single sound would mean that, at that distance, one gun would have to be fired before the other.

Your go!

Bad luck ,Riffraff.

 

[ibn sina]

Ok then here's mine:

You're standing at a crossroad (two different directions) you're going to a village but you don't know which way.
In front of you stands two brothers, the curious thing about them is that one of them always lies and the other one always speaks the truth but you don't know which one.
You want to know which way leads to the village but you're only allowed to ask one question, what should you ask?

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

Spoiler :

What would the other one tell me to do?

Then do the opposite.

Or, if one always lies, get him to make a statement without asking a question. Like, punch him and see if he says, "that didn't hurt!"

 

[Sparta]

A curious trial took place in Austria:
apparently, two aristorocrats, one of which has slighted the other through some kind of dishonouring, had taken it upon themselves to enact a duel, up in the Austrian Alps.
According to the remaining defendant's testimony, the two men had climbed onto different mountains, a mile apart, and were to, at exactly 6:00, fire off a shot at each other.
According to the sole witness, a climber just below the peak, he heard a single, polyphonic crack, and climbed to find the body of the dead man, a single round in his head, and a single round expended from his rifle.

A duel, would, of course, not be a murder trial, as it would be consentual, so manslaughter would be a more fitting charge. However, the state decided to prosecute for murder. Why?

Because the survivor was on a peak one mile to the east of the victim, so he hit 6:00 and fired, and the bullet reached the victim before it was technically 6:00 there (at which point the victim, upon being hit by the arriving bullet, inadvertently pulled the hair trigger on his rifle, discharging the single round simultaneously with the sound of the already-fired round arriving, such that the climber witness only heard a single report)?

(I would think they would just synchronize watches or something, so my guess is probably way off base, but it was all I could think of. By the way, I loved the ultra-non-committal opening of "apparently, two aristorocrats, one of which has slighted the other through some kind of dishonouring" ... )

Oh and Taliesin, nice riddle on the pirate one. I assume that the pirates take no value in any promises made by compatriots (they are pirates after all ), otherwise were I in the second-to-last pirates shoes, I would be agitating the most dissension this side of the HMS Bounty with promises of gold here and there ...

Good riddles, guys! Nice thread.

Edit: Wow, you guys are quick ... And Eran's first guess on the next one is correct, AFAIK.

 

[ibn sina]

Spoiler :

What would the other one tell me to do?

Then do the opposite.

Or, if one always lies, get him to make a statement without asking a question. Like, punch him and see if he says, "that didn't hurt!"

Heard it before?

Anyways you're right so your turn

 

[brennan]

You ask either of them 'would he (the other brother) tell me this (either way) is the correct way to go?' If they answer Yes, go the other way. If they answer No go that way.

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

Err, I still don't have one, and I have guessed 3 so far. So I will let someone else go, and then later pop in with another of my own, and there will be confusion as to which is which, and that will be the greatest conundrum of them all!

Ahem. Sorry, just got a little carried away.

 

[brennan]

What's the sound of one hand clapping?

This has a simple answer.

 

[Sparta]

What's the sound of one hand clapping?

/Thrusts single hand forward.

 

[brennan]

You mean no sound? Wrong.

 

[Sparta]

You mean no sound? Wrong.

Okay. I wasn't sure if you meant it in the koan sense or not. If not, how about the same as the sound of two hands clapping (since you could imagine either hand as creating the 'clap' sound)?

 

[nonconformist]

Is it enlightenment or some crap like that?

Or a slight swishing?

 

[brennan]

Sparta pretty much has it. Anything 'clapping' is making a 'clap' sound - since the word is an onomatope - it imitates the sound it describes.

 

[Erik Mesoy]

It is "clap".

*demonstrates by shutting fist and making a "clap" sound*

 

[Sparta]

Crap; now I need to think of something.

I'll work on trying to find a decent one, but if anyone at all has a good one they can think of in the meantime, by all means go right ahead.