so, how many hawks are left?

[layne67]

Okay, the answer to the puzzle I posted a couple of days ago. In case you miss that post, here is the question again.

Three hawks have been killing a farmer's chickens. One day he sees all three sitting on the roof of his chicken coop. The farmer has just one bullet in his gun and the hawks are so far apart that he can only hit one. He aims at the hawk on the left and shoots and kills it. The bullet doesn't ricochet. How many hawks are left on the roof?

Same disclaimer as before applies *glances furtively towards montmorency*

This puzzle is actually quite easy ( once you know the answer ), the only thing is that we have to think of all the different scenarios that could have happened after the farmer shot the hawk. Most people stop at one and that's the first mistake in trying to solve this.

The second mistake is that most people think that this is a trick question with lots of unneccesary infos thrown in, a question that requires a trick answer when in fact it's actually a direct question.

And lastly is the assumption that the dead hawk would fall off the roof when it might not have ( for whatever reason which I'm not going to elaborate, thank you very much *glares at a certain somebody* ).

Since the question didn't ask how many "living hawks" were left on the roof, just how many "hawks", the answers are these :

1. Three hawks would remain if the dead hawk didn't fall off and the other two don't fly away ( again, for whatever reason ).

2. Two hawks, if the dead hawk didn't fall off and one flies away or if the dead hawk did fall off and the other two stay.

3. One hawk, if the dead hawk fell and one of the others flies away or if the dead hawk didn't fall and the others fly away.

4. No hawks, if the dead hawk fell off the roof and the others fly away.

Congratulations to violettefemme and surgicalsteel for coming very close to the full answer.

montmorency and serai1 both gave answers that could have been right when they questioned the word "left" in the puzzle which they said ( and rightly so ) could mean "how many hawks remaining on the roof" or "their positions on the roof", in this case the answer would be "one hawk is left". Darn, this is making my head spins.

Anyway, thank you so much for participating. And honeyandvinegar and i_o_r_h_a_e_l, I enjoyed those tricksssy extra riddles too!

Comments

[aredhelebenesse.livejournal.com]

*headdesk*
*headdesk*
*headdesk*
This is a clear question with some clear answers! Nobody will be able to find this out! It's the same when you tidy up your desk! Everything is way to clear to be simple.
Nono, that's much to high for an amoeba like me. ;D

[layne67.livejournal.com]

It's the same when you tidy up your desk! Everything is way to clear to be simple

Not when it's my desk. I shudder everytime it's time to tidy it up :D