Hi someone gave me this brainteaser today and the answer I get (4) seems too easy and obvious. Am I missing someting?
Here’s the question:
Angela left on a trip the day after the day before yesterday and she will be back on the eve of the day after tomorrow. How many days is she away?
Yes. The day after the day beofr yesterday is yesterday; the eve of the day after tomorrow is tomorrow. So she’s away yesterday, today, and tomorrow - three days.
Using today as a reference I have here leaving Sunday and returning Tuesday so she will only be away one day. She will be here at least part of the day she leaves and the day she returns.
I make it two days, possibly three depending on your definition of a day away. I got this by interpreting “eve” to mean “the day before”, as in Christmas Eve. Interpreting it as evening would, obviously, give you a different result.
So, with my interpretation, she left yesterday, and will be back tomorrow. One day for yesterday, one day for today, and, possibly, one day for tomorrow. But, I really don’t think tomorrow counts, so I say two days.
The question asks how many days IS she away not how many she WILL be. Since she left yesterday, and it’s now today, she’s been gone one day.
What is the definition of ‘is’?
is - (iz) v. 1) third-person present tense of “to be”.
= yesterday
= the day before the day after tomorrow = tomorrow
absent: yesterday, today, tomorrow
elapsed time: noon to noon to noon (for example) = 2 days
elapsed time: 6:00 am (first day) to 6:00 pm (last day, for example) = 2 1/2 days
days “away” (from work or school or whatever) = 3 “days”
Lacking times in the puzzle, I would guess that 3 is the desired answer.
Well, she is away two nights anyway. You can be away two nights and argue about the amount of hours before the first night and after the last night.
In the spirit of the riddle, once you know she left yesterday and comes back tomorrow…which is the gist of it…you solved it. The rest is semantics.
The answer is here.
Just last week I told my mother on our weekly phone call that I was going on a quick trip to Chicago. Said that I’m getting in on Friday, leaving Sunday, and that “I am gone for 3 days”. WILL be and IS are the same in this sentence.
Well, I know what someone means when they say “I am gone for 3 days”, but gramatically it’s incorrect. Many puzzles make use of symantics and grammar to hide the answer, so it was a valid examination.
Valid, yes, but in reality one would say “How many days has* she been gone?” to get across your message. 
The question is asked in terms of days, and is answered in terms of days and nights. WTF?
And what about the question of if she was time-traveling? Is it according to her perception or ours? What if she’s traveling at the speed of light? What if ‘trip’ is referring to drug use? What if all observers are shielded from the sun and have no clocks? What if ‘day’ is only a figurative term? What Angela is killed en route and never returns?