Dan Emanuel
Active member
Thats more or less what I was trying to say....You read that into the problem. That is your real issue. You read the words but you heard different words...
Its not exactly the same at all, in any way. False analogy. This two-coin riddle is like an optical illusion, only aurally. It shine's light on a limitation to our ability to understand each other, even when we superficially speak the same language....Here is another puzzle that relies on exactly this same mental error of hearing different words to what you read.
I have two modern British coins. Together they total 30p. However, one of them isn't a 20p coin.
What are the two coins?
For the culturally uneducated: modern British coins: 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, £1, £2. And many British people, unable to work out a solution with all modern coins, resort to older coins. In particular there was a 5 shilling piece called a crown, which would be worth 25p if it was still current. In other words, they don't listen to the plain words of the problem, which called for modern coins only.
Granting that they're are exception's to every rule, 1 of them certainly being a non-native-English speaker uttering something inadvertently crafty like this riddle is written, whenever something is written or said to intentionally exploit this limitation, by implying something that is known to be inferred without any work-checking by most people, this is intentionally dishonest. The reason it work's . . . the reason this limitation exist's . . . is because we usually naturally presume that when people are saying something to us, they are not trying to deceive us. This two-coin riddle is a perfect example of somebody being deceptive and intentionally misleading; exploiting the limitation of our ability to understand each other, even when we superficially speak the same language.
This is forked-tongue English, is what I'm saying. Its a distinct language. Far more complex than English. You've got to have a good memory.
DJ
2.0