# A Brain Puzzle Question **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 20, 2006, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-brain-puzzle-question/345322 "2006-02-20T15:26:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-brain-puzzle-question/345322/21 "2006-02-20T20:02:34Z")
Did the bartender fire a conventional pistol, one with a bullet? Did this action fulfill the customer’s request? ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-brain-puzzle-question/345322/22 "2006-02-20T20:07:40Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > Did the bartender fire a conventional pistol, one with a bullet? > > Did this action fulfill the customer’s request? Q1: Irrelevant Q2: Yes. In fact the guy thanked the bartender and went merrily on his way (as they say). ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-brain-puzzle-question/345322/23 "2006-02-20T20:48:21Z")
> [@amrussell](#): > > I can make the knight live, but I’m not sure if I can kill the dragon That’s odd - I can kill the dragon, but my knight is dead. 🙂 _Aha!_ - I just saved him on preview. 😃 And now that I can read the spoilers, I can see that you don’t have a solution for that. Well, my knight mixes water from wells 1 and 2, thus creating non-poisonous water. The dragon then goes off to drink from well 7, thus poisoning himself incurably. [Here’s some classic logic problems, BTW.](http://mathforum.org/dr.math/faq/faq.classic.problems.html) ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-brain-puzzle-question/345322/24 "2006-02-20T20:50:18Z")
Is it just my computer, or are none of these things working in this thread? ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-brain-puzzle-question/345322/25 "2006-02-20T20:51:31Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > Is it just my computer, or are none of these things working in this thread? See…it didn’t work for me either. I see the coding and no spoiler box. Odd… ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-brain-puzzle-question/345322/26 "2006-02-20T20:52:09Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > Is it just my computer, or are none of these things working in this thread? It’s not just you! Weird shit. ---
**Author:** ![MissMossie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@MissMossie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissMossie)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-brain-puzzle-question/345322/27 "2006-02-20T21:47:22Z")
> [@amrussell](#): > > I can make the knight live, but I’m not sure if I can kill the dragon: > > Before exchanging water, the knight has a drink from the lowest well, thus ensuring that whatever the dragon gives him is a cure to the poison he’s already taken. Similarly, he can kill the dragon by making him drink something other than water, so that well no. 7 (which is the dragon’s safe bet) becomes an incurable poison. But I don’t find the last part very satisfactory. Yep. That’s what I’ve always heard as the answer, usually with **Revenant Threshold** substitution of sea water. Good job! ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2006, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-brain-puzzle-question/345322/28 "2006-02-21T00:06:40Z")
I read the puzzle as having well 1 _be_ the sea.[/spoiler] I’d still use my solution, 'cause [spoiler]the dragon might taste the salt, and in any case, how much of a knight would you be to do that? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2006, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-brain-puzzle-question/345322/29 "2006-02-21T01:28:35Z")
> [@Nanoda](#): > > and in any case, how much of a knight would you be to do that? 😃 Chaotic Evil? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![TJdude825](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2006, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-brain-puzzle-question/345322/30 "2006-02-21T07:57:20Z")
The spoiler tag is down, yes: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/announcement.php?f=13](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/announcement.php?f=13) ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2006, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-brain-puzzle-question/345322/31 "2006-02-21T13:58:50Z")
> [@middleman](#): > > Paul is dead. Zed’s dead, baby. Zed’s dead. ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2006, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-brain-puzzle-question/345322/32 "2006-02-21T17:34:15Z")
I solved how to kill the dragon, but I don’t think we have a solution for saving the knight. Assuming the dragon isn’t retarded, he’d think of the same thing as the knight. What if the dragon brings him water from well #1? That just gives the knight two doses of poison, and kills him. ---
**Author:** ![Cabbage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@Cabbage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabbage)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2006, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-brain-puzzle-question/345322/33 "2006-02-21T22:29:37Z")
I’ve got the same calendar and noticed this mistake (or poorly worded problem) myself. There was another mistake in the calendar on February 16. The question was: Kim has three vases in her living room, each containing the same number of flowers. Kim adds three fresh flowers to one vase, which now has two more than the new average. How many flowers were in the vases originally? Their answer: six (6 + 3 = 9, the old average was 6, the new average is 7). The correct answer:There’s not enough information. With the information given, there could have been **any** number of flowers in the vases: If you add three flowers to a single vase, you increase the average number of flowers per vase by 1, while increasing the number of flowers in that particular vase by 3. The vase with the additional flowers will always have two more flowers than the new average. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-brain-puzzle-question/345322.md?page=1)