How To Solve The Secret Word Logic Puzzle
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- čas přidán 11. 02. 2017
- A teacher writes six words on the board: cat, dog, has, max, dim, tag. The teacher hands a piece of paper to Albert, another to Bernard, and another to Cheryl. The teacher explains each paper contains a different letter from one of the words written on the board. The teacher asks if Albert knows the secret word, and *after a moment, he replies aloud, "Yes." The teacher then asks Bernard, and after a moment of thinking, he also says, "Yes." And finally Cheryl is asked and she takes a moment and then confidently replies, "Yes," she also knows the word. Albert, Bernard and Cheryl always ace their logic exams. What was the secret word? Watch the video for the solution.
*Since the original wording caused confusion, I meant to say each person takes a moment to think. As written in the video there was room for interpretation--if I were grading I would have accepted any logically reasoned conclusion.
My blog post for this video
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I adapted this problem from the puzzle "Yes, Yes, Yes" in "The Great Book of Mind Teasers & Mind Puzzlers" by George J. Summers, which has the same situation with 5 words.
This puzzle has been featured on Mental Floss, Reader's Digest, and MSN:
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Welcome Mental Floss, Readers Digest, and MSN readers! This puzzle was recently featured in those sites and happy to have many new people learning about MindYourDecisions. As this puzzle is blowing up, I want to clarify one point:
As the original wording caused confusion, I meant to say each person takes a "moment" to think. I just used the "moment" as a way of saying each person thinks about his/her own letter and the other people's answers. In the video I only mentioned Bernard and Cheryl took a "moment," so that caused confusion as to why Albert did not take a "moment." As written in the video there was room for interpretation--if I were grading I would have accepted any logically reasoned conclusion.
Links to articles:
mentalfloss.com/article/516930/can-you-guess-secret-word-brain-teaser
www.rd.com/culture/solve-secret-word-logic-puzzle/
www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/smart-living/if-you-can-solve-the-secret-word-in-this-logic-puzzle-you-might-be-a-genius/ar-BBEKrU7?li=BBnb7Kz
Yeah, the "moments" tripped me up.
I believe the kids would also have gotten it if the word was CAT. It has to do with the wording. Albert gets a C so he knows the word. Bernard gets a T so after a moment to think he knows that it's CAT since if it were TAG then Albert would not have known his word. Now Cheryl has the A. It's either CAT, TAG, HAS or MAX. She knows it can't be TAG. It also can't be MAX because that would mean that Bernard held the M and would be certain that Albert held an X, which isn't the case since Albert could also have an I. Now it's between CAT and HAS and this is where you could say I'm wrong but it isn't necessarily the case. Bernard sees his T and after thinking for a moment and realizing it can't be TAG, he says he knows the answer is CAT. If the answer was HAS and Cheryl held the A then Bernard would not have needed to think at all about the H or S like he did the T since he would have had a unique letter as well. Cheryl can deduce that due to the hesitation that the word must be CAT.
MindYourDecisions it can be CAT pls add the ans on those sites
The answer is 'has'. Albert gets H or S, and knows it must be 'has'. Bernard gets S or H, and thinks for a moment about the fact that Albert has just confidently stated he knows what it is - this confirms it is 'has' because there are two unique letters in it. Cheryl hears the other two confidently stating they know, and takes a moment to infer that it's the one word with two unique letters - 'has' - and therefore says she knows too.
Matt, S and H are unique. The confidence doesn't imply unique letters for the 2nd person. He actually had to think for a moment after the 1st person replied. If he also had a unique letter he wouldn't have to. Cheryl could use that to imply they both cad unique letter is she has the A. If anything the pause by person 2 tells Chreyl the 1st 2 letters aren't unique. The only other one besides DOG for a case is CAT, due to implying the pause required a pause with Cheryl having A.
Teacher: “Saira, do you know the word?” Saira, after a moment of thinking: “No”
😂 Yes. "Saira, get out."
O
Hilarious😂
@@magnuskallas wow, the teacher getting someone out of class for legit not understanding?! That is sad
@@Z4SS0 Did you get hurt for reading obvious satire?
people struggling to find the solution , meanwhile am struggling to understand the damn question
Same! Please tl;dr below
and it's even more complicated that you're French ...
@@ysmashdelasaintecrepe9520 what
yes ikr took me a sec to get the question
@@theeeryteacher6417 it's more complicated to understand the question when you are french ( because i'm french )
The problem with this solution is that Bernard's pause can be interpreted as him not having a unique letter, which would eliminate him having H and HAS as an option before Cheryl's turn. Which then opens the possibility of Cheryl having either A or D, leading to the answer being either CAT or DOG.
I believe you can fix this by adding HAT as a seventh word.
I think it could also be HAS, if Albert & Bernard had got the H & S, Cheryl would have got A and be able to know the word as it would be the only possible word that the other two could know for certain
@@JoolsTwo The fact that Bernard hesitated means it probably can't be HAS. If Bernard had "H" or "S", he would have answered immediately.
Albert has "C" and immediately knows the word.
Bernard has "T", and hearing Albert confidently answer, realizes the word cannot be TAG, so that leaves CAT.
Cheryl has "A", knows it cannot be TAG because of Albert's confident answer, knows it cannot be MAX because Bernard could not have known, and it couldn't be HAS because Bernard would have answered IMMEDIATELY. But he didn't. That leaves CAT.
I agree completely. HAS and TAG are eliminated immediately. TAG is out because it has no unique letters, and HAS is out because it has two unique letters. With two unique letters, H and S, Albert would had to have had the H or S, and Bernard would have had to have the other of the two. Neither would have found it necessary to pause before saying they knew the answer. With HAS eliminated, either CAT or DOG could have been the secret word.
@@johnmiller5629sure, but it's a bit of a gamble to assume Cheryl would eliminate HAS on the basis of bernard hesitating
I was under the impression they had formed a new unique word from the letters they were given. :l
Same 😐
Same. When I read 'different' letter, I thought that meant it wasn't a letter on the board at all and that totally threw me. Glad to see that the puzzle wording was very misleading.
That seems to be a common theme on this channel. Misleading questions, arbitrary assumptions, generally unsolvable questions forced into the solve box. Of course no one can figure out half of these riddles.
The way the question was worded, that's what I thought too.
Me too. The puzzle is badly explained.
Answer: Bernard cheats in his logic exams.
Except he sits in the front of the class and there are only three students in the entire school.
Lol
Lmao nc
@@protorhinocerator142 He's good at this
poorly written problem. Very confusing and allows a wide range of interpretations and answers (as we can see in the comments lol)
Rafael F.A.C., not poorly written, just flat WRONG. There is only one solution, and it is:
- both 'cat' and 'dog' could have been the word.
I said poorly written because it seems that it could be a fun problem if everything was better thought and explained
CAT is ruled out. If CAT were the word, Albert would have had to have C (or not know the word with A or T). Once TAG is ruled out, Bernard would have to have T (or not know the word with A). Then Cheryl would have to have A, and not figure out that the word is CAT. From what Cheryl heard, if she had an A, the word could also have been HAS.
John Randomness, Cheryl would have ruled out 'has' since Bernard had to THINK (and not just LOOK) before he said yes. This leaves Cheryl with either of two singular solutions, depending only on the letter she had on her piece of paper. Her answer is therefore 'yes' whether the word was 'cat' or 'dog'.
pepe briguglio
Bernard had to think to figure out what was ruled out with his letter. In particular, he had to put himself in Alfred's position, to figure out the remaining possibilities. Cheryl can't rule out anything because of Bernard's actual thinking. In particular, HAS hasn't been ruled out.
I entirely misinterpreted the question and thought that only the unique letters between the words counted and I had to find what word could be spelled with those remaining letters.
So my answer was the word "six"
kind of same
my brain thought "what word is missing in this sentence" so it told me "the" lmao
Me too
Literally same. When I heard the answer begin I was so mad that I had stared at the screen thinking so long over the wrong set of instructions 🤦🏻♀️
That is _exactly_ how I thought too, and the same answer I came up with! 💡
So, you are a girl, and a brunette, Max?
Are you dating anyone right now? 😘
What if Bernards moment of thinking was NOT because he was considering Alberts answer, but rather because he was a slow reader and was carefully considering if his letter ("X" for example) actually uniquely identified the word? The fact they always ace their logic exams could be because they are thorough and double check their work. So the proposed solution of "Continuing from Alberts response" is actually a perhaps an erroneous ASSUMPTION about the reason Bernard paused,
Badly worded puzzle. Two equally possible answers, because Bernard's pause eliminates "has".
No, because we could still consider that Albert had H or S. If Bernard had the other unique letter in "has", he could still know it. So we can't just eliminate it. But since it contains the letter A, it is eliminated later. Tag is ruled out since all of its letters are in other words. From there, Cheryl knows Albert and Bernard have unique letters. She can narrow down the possible words until only "dog" remains. (Cheryl has D, Albert has O, and Bernard has G.)
> Bernard had the other unique letter in "has"
> Cheryl knows Albert and Bernard have unique letters
But Bernard doesn't have a unique letter. The "G" from DOG is also present in TAG. Its only because of Albert's answer that Bernard can rule out TAG hence "the moment of pause". The case a lot of people are saying is if he could only rule out TAG after Albert's response then surely he can rule out "HAS" as well because he would not have needed to listen to Albert's answer and hence needed "the moment of pause". The problem in the question's wording is what a moments pause signifies?
Not only that, Cheryl cant have an O because it is a unique letter and she had to think, so the only option left it CAT
@@eliyafinkelman9672 Cheryl has D
Exactly! Here I was trying my best to finally solve one of these puzzles myself before watching the video, only to give up because no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't figure it how to determine if it was Cat or Dog since I had already eliminated Has on the fact that Albert was seemingly the only one with a letter that was unique amongst all 6 words.
So I finally give up only to find out that the answer is only conclusive if you disregard that particular piece of evidence.
I have a different solution:
Let's assume Albert got the letter "C". So he can be sure the word is "CAT".
Next Bernard got "T". But of cause he couldn't be sure about the word in the first place because there is also the word "TAG" But because "TAG" doesn't involve any unique letter, after Alberts statement he can be sure it has to be "CAT"
Last there's Cherly with her "A". She knows it can not be "TAG". It could be "HAS" but because Bernard had to think about the solution for a second, he needed Albert's help, so she can assume the word isn't "HAS" because there are two unique letters in it. It could only be "MAX" when Bernard got the letter "M" (because of the unique "X"), but in that case Bernard could not be sure about the word because "DIM" also involves his "M" and he couldn't say if Albert got the "I" from "DIM" or the "X" from "MAX". So she can also eliminate "MAX". That only leaves "CAT" for the solution.
That doesn't show "CAT" is the only correct answer but it proves that it is at least possible to be one of the correct answers.
just wrote the same thing XD
I also got cat when I did this on my own.
True, this does depend on whether or not the students realized when the others hesitated. I feel that the hesitation was more of a hint to us, though. It would be a less ambiguous problem without the ", after a moment of thinking,"
dont be stupid.. in that case...cheryl cant figure out if the wrd is has or cat
"cheryl cant figure out if the wrd is has or cat"
Actually she knows that it can't be 'has' because Bernard had to think after Albert gave his answer. Because Bernard did not know before Albert answered he could not himself have a unique letter. That eliminates 'has'.
Albert and Cheryl have been sleeping with each other and they've been communicating, non-verbally, during the exams. Meanwhile, Bernard was a former student of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry and an accomplished legilimens. Problem solved.
Dang it.
Thank you, your explanation makes sense. XD
Haha correct
Cheryl Definitely got the D
What.
I think "cat" can also be an answer if you consider the students high analytical skills as a clue. That is, Bernard could not have gotten any letter that appears only once because he needed to think briefly to identify the word (as opposed to Albert who immediately figured it out). So adding to the logic explained in the video, he couldn't have had "S" or "H"and Cheryl could therefore also eliminate the word "has". It leaves her with cat and dog, which she can deduce from knowing her own letter. Unfortunately we don't have this data and can't deduce the right word. Just a matter of perspective...
i thought the same
Since Albert didn't hesitate, you can rule the word "tag" out as well (it has no letters unique to this word). Also, since there are four words with an "a" in it, the student who had received this letter wouldn't have been able to figure the puzzle out (eliminate "has" and "tag", and you have "cat" and "max" that still contain the letter "a") so you can eliminate both "cat" and "max" as well. This leaves you with "dog" and "dim", alas, without a proper anchor, it's impossible to tell which of the two is the correct solution.
@@Falk0Stewen me too
I know this is months old, but I followed this exact same path, I listed out the words with unique letters, and interpreted the pause as meaning Bernard did not have a unique letter
@@jacuul6735 he did not!! Why is this riddle have the wrong answer everywhere!!!
Boy, was this question ever badly worded. I had no idea what "each paper contains a different letter from one of the words on the board" was supposed to mean. I initially thought it must mean "a letter that is not found in one of the words on the board," and I couldn't figure out what they were supposed to guess from that. It would have been a lot clearer to say, "The teacher explains that each piece of paper contains one letter, and the three letters together spell out one of the words on the board."
Moreover, as TheQueue841 points out, the answer is wrong. The word could have been either "cat" or "dog," because Cheryl had some additional information: she knew that Bernard had to think before saying he could identify the word. If his letter, like Albert's, had been a unique letter, he wouldn't have needed time to think. Thus, Cheryl would know the word couldn't be "has" - and thus she could have deduced "cat" from the letter A.
I give MindYourDecisions a D on this logic test.
Good point about "a different letter from one of the words..." This could be interpreted as the three students' letters are different from each other, and each student's letter is from one of the words (the intended meaning), or it could be interpreted as the three students' letters are different from the letters in the words -- in which case the puzzle doesn't make sense.
THIS! EXACTLY WHAT I THOUGHT. I didn’t understand what the riddle was saying so I just had to play the video and see what he said for the answer. And yeah, Cat, is also a valid answer. From A-F I give it an F. And yes I am probably being harsh.
I interpreted "...a different letter from one of the words on the board" as "each person is given a letter contained in any of the six words". For example, C in Cat, O in Dog, X in Max. A better wording would have been "The teacher chooses one of the six words and gives each student a piece of paper containing a different letter from that word."
@@douglashudson4706 can we do it in actual practice ?
Agreed. Definitely worded poorly :/
The answer could also be cat. This is because Cheryl knows that word couldn't be 'has'. This is because if Bernard had any of the letter 'h' or 's' he did not have to think to say yes.
I thought the exact same thing
Completely agree with you.
Maybe Bernard had farsightedness and forgot his glasses
I thought exact thing, has should be eliminated for that reason
But then she would be stuck between Max and Cat, and not just have Cat as the correct answer. Because she could assume Albert had an X, and assume Bernard thought about it because he has an M, and that could mean he was deciding between Dim or Max, and she wouldnt have entirely thought sure of Cat. So either are candidates still if you want the answer to be Cat, which would make Cat not the secret word because of guessing
I didn't understand the puzzle so I thought it was a trick question and the answer was "yes"
There's definitely more than one way to interpret this.
First two both pick "has" because it is the only option with 2 unique letters.
Cheryl sees this to determine the word.
Why would the 2nd person have to think about it, if they had a unique letter?
H and S are both unique.
2nd person can't have A as they could never be certain.
But if the second person had the 2nd unique letter of has, they would know immediately as well...
the seccond letter couldnt have been H or S, since the problem explicitly says that bernard took a moment to think. Thus, his letter was not unique.
It was poorly worded but I think what he meant is that Bernard did not immediately know the word at the very start, but had to process the new information that came from Albert's response and once he knew what Albert knew, he could infer the rest.
Exactly what i was thinking. So the solution is that it's either cat or dog.
+David Boucard This is why it absolutely cannot be "has". Bernard would have known from the start and not needed Albert's input if Bernard had one of the two unique letters of "has", and if he had "a" he wouldn't have known the word.
David Boucard But if Bernard has either H or S his answer wouldn't depend on Albert's. He wouldn't have to think. The word can be either Cat or Dog.
That he took a moment to think is irrelevant. You can't just assume. It just so happened that the answer ended up not being has, but in the solution leading up to the answer, you can't say that the reason he took a moment to think was because the letter wasn't unique. I agree that portion was poorly worded.
I thought the secret word was spelled using their letters, but not necessarily on the board. (Six)
James Clark That's exactly what I understood too
James Clark me too. it should've been more explicit
James Clark same lol I actually tried to figure it out but it wasn't making sense now I see why
Same here, the intro keeps asking about "the secret word" like there is a single, unique seventh word that the three letters the students got spell. Not great phrasing in the puzzle wording.
No, the word was only secret because we hadn't worked it out yet.
Nobody said there was another word to find.
I didn't work it out either, but I'm not blaming anyone else for that.
Understanding the wording of this riddle was a bigger challenge than the riddle itself.
Plot twist: The first letter is actually C so albert knew right away that it was cat. The second letter is T so it took bernard a second to realize that it couldn't be Tag because albert knew his letter and all the letters in tag are in other words so it had to be Cat. The third letter was A and it took Cheryl a moment to realize it couldn't be Tag or Max because both the other two wouldnt know their letters and it couldn't be Has because the other two would have both known right away the word because both S and H make it easily identified so it had to be cat because they both knew the word but bernard didnt know it right away.
Exactly. It is either "cat" or "dog", because "has" can be ruled out by the logic that it has two unique letters H and S, so that two of the people would've know the answer right away instead of thinking. But sind Bernard and Cheryl had to think, the word can't be "has". So, depending on whether she has an A or a G, Cheryl can say whether the correct word is "cat" or "dog".
False. Pausing for a moment doesn't mean he has no unique letter. That's a completely arbitrary jump in logic with no basis in facts. The thinking for a moment could just as easily be him double checking his answer.
@@arandombard1197 in a real world scenario you would be right but given the way this puzzle is set up with people who have perfect logic; Why would the first person be able to answer without thinking and the second person who already had more time because of him being asked second not be able to answer without thinking as well? Why would the creator of the puzzle specify that bernard had to think for a moment but albert did not? Someone with perfect logic would understand that because the first person didnt have to think but the second person did would mean that the second person had to rely on the first persons answer to know the answer as well, otherwise he wouldn't have had to think about it to be able to say yes. This puzzle has 2 possible solutions
... or "cat"
Albert got the 'c', so he knows instantly.
Bernard got the 't' so once he knows it's not tag, then he knows for certain.
Cheryl has 'a' so she knows that it would not have taken both of the others a moment of thinking if it was 'has' and if Albert had 'x' for max then Bernard might have thought it could be 'dim', so Bernard wouldn't get it, therefor it would be 'cat'. There is no single answer for this.
WhovianMinecrafter A MOMENT OF THINKING DOESN’T DETERMINE WHAT A LETTER IS AGHHH
A moment of thinking determines what the letter isn't...unique, hence why "has" is eliminated and "cat" is also a possibility.
very whale sayed
They could have also gotten h and s, meaning a would have two possibilities.
@@spencerofthecoast6415 yeah but if the word was has then two of the three people would have had unique letters. But with that, both of the people wouldn’t have needed a moment to think about it.
I have a different aproch: Albert receives a letter that appears only once because he instantly knows the word, so he could have received the letters "c", "o", "h", "s", "x" and "i" and the possible words are: "cat", "dog" , "has", "max" and "dim", excluding the word tag. Bernard knows this and if he would had received a letter that appears only once he would've known the answer instantly as well, which is not the case. Since he knows the answer, he has received a letter that appears twice which are: "t", "d", "g" and "m" and the words possible for him now are: cat / tag, dog / dim, dog / tag, max/dim. He uses the fact that "tag" is not an option and find the secret word that can be either "cat" or "dog". So far, without knowing the exact answer, we were able to reduce the list to two possibilities, and so did Cheryl, who was only able to find the answer after Albert and Bernard's answers. Now comes the struggle: we know that Albert could've received the letters "c" or "o" (these letters apear only once), Bernard could've received the letters "t" or "g" (apears in two words, one of them being "tag") and now Cheryl could've received the letters "a" or "d": in both cases she would find out the secret word only after the first two answers, leaving the problem with two possible solutions.
Believe me bro this is the exact approach I had taken, and stuck between cat and dog
Which is why everyone fights over this one like cats 🐈 and dogs 🐕
Bernard does know the answer instantly when it's his turn. We're not given any information on whether he knew before or after, as the puzzle simply states Albert was asked first then Bernard was asked.
Based on the info provided, it could just as easily be "CAT" if Albert, Bernard and Cheryl got a C, T and A respectively.
HAS can be ruled out only because Bernard had to think a bit before identifying the word. But even that is an assumption
yeah this pisses me off
No, it cannot be "has". We know that the initial letters Albert could have received are C, O, H, X, or I. All other letters are repeated. From this, and the fact that Bernard was able to solve for the word, we know he had T, G, or S. All other letters would be repeated somewhere. At this point, the words that we cannot rule out are "cat", "dog", and "has". If Cheryl got an A, it would be ambiguous as to whether the word was "cat" or "has", so she would not have been able to solve for the word. Therefore, she must have the D, since she was able to solve for it. I haven't watched the video though, so this is just the logical process I used.
She would conclude that if they both figured it out, they both had to have unique letters. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think that ‚has’ is also the correct answear
@@user-jn8cs1lt8m no cuz Sheryl would face 2 words with the letter a, meaning that she would say that she doesn't know the answer
@@mindbend13 You're missing the point. Both letters 'h' and 's' are unique to 'has', so Albert could have either of them and Bernard would have the other. However, Bernard had to think for a moment before he answered, unlike Albert, so it seems reasonable to conclude he did not have a letter that was unique to a single word and had to think logically to figure it out (like we're doing). If Cheryl had the letter a, she could have taken this into consideration and concluded that the word must be cat.
The first video on this channel that I could actually solve on my own for once
it cannot be "has", because Bernard needed to hear Albert's response and have a moment of thinking before being able to determine whether he knew the word. Therefore cat and dog are equally likely. Cheryl can identify the word from her letter whichever it is, but to us as outsiders, we cannot distinguish between cat and dog without more information.
Exactly
you are absolutely correct
It could be "has' because an assumption is being made about what Bernard is thinking. Although I totally agree that in the wording of the puzzle it is perfectly reasonable to assume this ace logic student is focused on and thinking clearly about the puzzle, it still remains an assumption. This may have been an off day for this otherwise ace student, they may even have been very hungry and their moment of thinking was about a bacon sandwich. Not the most likely of answers, but it is an assumption, not pure 100% logic that rules out the word 'has'
Yes I made the argument for CAT as well and was disappointed that wasn't the answer. I thought for once I had actually figured out the answer on my own.
@@ayoubniyaz for me, cat was impossible because cheryl had an unique letter. If she had the letter a, she couldn’ know if it was cat or has.
There is a fault in the puzzle. The word 'has' should not have remained in the third stage of filtering, since Bernard thought for a moment before he could give an answer, which means he has NO UNIQUE LETTER. If he had 'h' or 's' he could have said 'yes' once he was asked the question, but since he thought for a moment it means he does not have one of those. This will leave Cheryl still confused between cat and dog, and the puzzle will be indetermnate.
Cheryl still knows what letter _she_ has though.
Didn't get your point.
mohamed wagdy Cheryl would not be confused, as whether the word was cat or dog, she would know. It is only us that would not know if the word was cat or dog 😉
I'm fully confident that Cheryl will find her way to the answer. I'm more worried about myself :D
If he said yes to H or S then Albert would not have had a letter to allow him to say Yes himself. So Bernard knew that Albert has to have a unique letter. That's the part about "logic"
Actually, there is another line of thinking that produces word "has". H and S are unique. So, if Albert and Bernard have any of those than Cheryl, knowing only two facts, that letters come from the same word, and that previous answers identify that the word has two unique letters, may have letter A and identify HAS as a word
I thought the same too
Ok, but the point is , that when Bernard was asked his question if Bernard knew the word, If Bernard DID have one of the Unique letters " H" or "S", then Bernard would not have had to PAUSE and think for a bit, If Bernard had and "H" or an "S" then he would have answered immediately
“CAT” is in fact possible as long as Albert got C and Bernard got T. Bernard would need to think about Albert’s unique letter to eliminate TAG just as you did before deciding on CAT. Cheryl would have to consider Bernard’s delayed response to know he didn’t get a unique letter from the start to be able to say HAS. Since she has A, after a bit she’d be able to finish CAT.
yes, that's also what i found
And he never said they shared their letter with the other two. They would have to know the other ppls letters for this to work.
If she had "A", she could have concluded that the word is CAT or HAS... both would have been possible. Yes, if they were all super-smart, Bernard shouldn't have paused before he said "yes", if the word was "has". He should have known before Albert even spoke, and responded right away... but maybe the pause to think was because he was distracted... still I do agree this is a slight flaw in the puzzle
@@myprophet1 They dont need to know letters others got. Cheryl needs to know Bernard has thought a bit
@@vidcoyoyo3156 when it was cheryl’s turn it could still be any of the three(cat,dog,has). But since cheryl has an unique letter from what’s left, it makes cat impossible.
I thought it was "yes" lol
Me too lol
Lmao same!!
Me too rofl
Today, I solved my first two problems on this channel. Been watching a solid two months or so. This is a great feeling.
Instructions unclear, elbow stuck in bowl of pudding.
My notes were:
Isolate unique letters (capitalized):
Cat dOg HaS maX dIm tag
Albert says he knows the word.
Therefore, Albert has a unique letter: C / O / H / S / X / I
It's not tag
Bernard says he knows after thinking
Bernard takes a moment to think, implying that he did not have a unique letter.
However, Bernard did figure out the word after knowing that Albert has a unique letter.
If Bernard had an A, D or M, he still wouldn't have known, because those letters are not unique within the set of non-unique letters.
If Bernard had a T or G, he would know, because after eliminating "tag" those letters are unique.
Therefore, Bernard must have T / G.
It's not has, max or dim
It's cat or dog
This means Albert had C or O
What Cheryl says now is irrelevant, we already know that it's cat or dog, and that Cheryl has D or A, and we already know that Cheryl is going to say Yes.
Conclusion:
We do not have any more information than this, so it can still be either cat or dog.
Kind of disappointing, this video. Your good videos make me feel dumb, but this one made me feel smart :-(
You're right. (More right than this video, sadly.) However, you can go further.
Cheryl had to think after hearing both Albert's and Bernard's responses. Therefore she did not know the answer based on what was on her card plus what Albert said. That means that she did not have D. If she had she would know that the word was 'dog'. Instead she had to have A, the only one that appears in more than 2 words.
Paul Kennedy, as Jesse Busman said, Cheryl's need to think does not provide us with more clues. If the word was CAT, and she had an A, she would have to consider Bernard's reply and whether he could answer straight away or not. And if the word was DOG, and her letter was D, she would also have to consider Bernard's reply, albeit, in this case, considering whether he replied yes or no would suffice. In both cases Cheryl would have to think about the implications of Bernard's reply before she could answer yes.
If Cheryl was considerably faster in her deductive thinking than Bernard was, then, already right after Albert's reply, she could have pre-planned her answer based on the implications of the different types of replies that Bernard might give. But this possibility would apply regardless of the letter she had. And evidently, she was not this much faster than Bernard. Else, given she had an A or a D, she might IN BOTH SCENARIOS have said yes immediately after Bernard's reply. So her need for time to think provides us with no further clues.
Therefore the word was either CAT or DOG. None of them can be excluded by us.
You misunderstand me. I didn't mean that the amount of thinking time she needed was significant. Simply that she needed information from Bernard's response as well as Albert's and couldn't be certain until she had heard it.
But Cheryl is equally dependent on Bernard's reply in both cases. If she had an A, she would have to think, and the same is true if she had a D. In both cases she could theoretically do the thinking whilst Bernard was thinking, and in both cases she would have to be fast, or Bernard would have to be slow. But all of that does not matter. In the end, Cheryl would in both cases need to think aswell as be able to know the word upon hearing what Albert and Bernard replied and how immediate their replies were. I do not understand what makes you think that we can exclude DOG as one of two possible words. Can you try to explain it in another way?
I agree. Bernard could not have had H or S, because those are unique and would not have required considering Albert ‘s response. A of course, wouldn’t have worked, either. The choices are cat and dog, and Cheryl does not need to consider Bernard’s response.
The problem is worded very bad! The teacher should ask Cheryl first at which she should say NO, then Bernard at which he should say NO, then Albert at which he should say YES, then Bernard should say NOW I KNOW THE WORD, then Cheryl should say NOW I KNOW THE WORD TOO!
At its present state the answer can be HAS because we cannot know how long a "moment of thinking" is and is it actually thinking at solving the problem or is it just a moment of thinking.
And it still is unsolvable at the end for cat and dog. Because TAG is eliminated by Albert's answer which leaves Bernard the possibility to have T and know the word, but also G and know the word which leads to Cheryl having A or D respectively and know the word!
Veselin Drumev I agree completely and got slightly confused when doing the question.
Veselin Drumev “H” and “S” are two unique letters in this set of words. “Has” can’t be the solution in any way because two people had to think it through; that would’ve not happened if the word was “Has” because two people would’ve gotten quickly that their word “H” or “S” was unique. Thus, by proof by contradiction, you get to see that “Has” can’t be the word, being the contradiction that 2 people didn’t had a unique solution, and “Has” has 2 unique solutions. However, you could argue that there’s actually two possible solutions to the riddle, them being “cat” and “dog”
Denis Rodriguez taking new information into account during a logic exam, adding that information to what you already knew, and deducing if it should change your answer or not still technically counts as a moment of thinking, the answer could have been ‘Cat, Dog, or Has’ because it didn’t specifically give information like “Bernard had already read his letter and the words on the board and deduced if he knew the word or not”
Dakota Yupyupyup if the word was “HAS”, then you wouldn’t need new information to take into account because one person would’ve had an S while the other would’ve had an H, they will just know that their word was “HAS” out of the spot, while the person with A will be the only one figuring out what happened to the other 2. That is to say, the person with H doesn’t need to know what the other 2 people have since there’s only one word with H, same idea goes with S. The riddle, however, said an opposite idea: 2 people thought it through while one student decipher it instantly since their letter was unique.
The statement regarding thinking stuff through differentiates between those sets of solutions that are unique from those that are not unique.
Also, if reading your letter counts as a “moment of thought”, that will be a contradiction against the person that answered without “the moment of thought”. That is because every person with a letter will be required to have a moment of thought, but for one person with a letter there wasn’t.
Denis Rodriguez it was never specified that the second person needed the information from the first person, it just said he took a moment to answer; which is what the smartest person there would do, double check, make sure to account for new information because there could be a logical trap you’re getting set up for. I absolutely believe that regardless of what any other kid said, the second yes is completely unconnected to the first because there is no tangible requirement to connect them, you’re just forcing yourself into a logical corner to do so and ignoring other aspects of the reality
'Albert, Bernard and Cheryl'
Me after 0.00853 seconds of thinking: Ah yes, 2015 birthday riddle, how can I forget that!
I found dog but in a different way. I started with excluding tag from the options but then I thought that when Bernard said yes, he had himself excluded the word tag. this means that a letter from the word tag is found only once more in another word. Because tag is excluded, we know that the right word is the other one. The letter g can be found twice (tag, dog). This means that the correct word is dog. Cheryl also knew about the word so he himself thought about all above and said yes.
So to break down the problem, Albert required no thought processes to identify the correct word as he was given a unique letter, making it easy for him to correctly guess the secret word. Now because it required Bernard to think for a moment, this means that he was NOT given a unique letter and so could not initially identify the correct word, but after hearing Albert’s reply he knew that the word could not possibly be tag as it contains no unique letters. THEN and only then did he know the secret word for certain, meaning that Bernard’s letter is unique to one of the 5 remaining words (after excluding tag), hence his letter is present in one of the 5 words AND in tag. It isn’t ‘a’ (pops up several times). It is either the ‘t’ in tag or the ‘g’ in tag. If it is t, then the word is cat, in which case Albert’s letter was c and Cheryl’s was a. Otherwise it is dog. If so, Albert’s letter would’ve been o and Cheryl’s would’ve been d. Now... here’s where the problem lies: The word could not have been ‘has’ as this is composed of 2 unique letters, which would’ve meant that 2 people would have immediately identified the secret word without a moment’s thought process, but since we know only 1 was given a unique letter, we know the word cannot be ‘has’. However, that would then leave us with a 1 in 2 chance of guessing correctly; guessing cat or dog.
The problem here is that the word 'has' is also removed after we know bernard's answer. Meaning that you cannot count 'cat' out, assuming that she needed to know bernards and Alberts answers.
I see another problem;
_We_ were not told the students would be working together to use the process of elimination to rule out the candidates. 😒
@@TheNoiseySpectator But at 0:29 he says:"the teacher says ALOUD."
This only works if they are asked in that order. If Bernard had gotten the g and was asked first, no one would know the word. It also only works if all three are clever enough to pay attention to the other ones' answers. The question says they always ace their logic exams, but that doesn't mean they'll all think the same way.
Albert rules out "tag" as it has no uniques.
Bernard rules out "max" and "dim" as he'd have an m, a or d (Albert using the i/x), and the ruling out of 'tag' doesn't help him.
Bernard also rules out "has" because if he had an a, he wouldn't know; and if he had the other unique (h/s) he wouldn't need to think.
This leaves "cat" or "dog". Albert C, Bernard T, Cheryl A would have enough information.
Albert O, Bernard G, Cheryl D would also have enough information. So both are possible.
You need to define the problem initially. It's not clear from the explanation what the question is. Is there a secret word that each of them have a letter from. Do each of their letters form a 7th word? Etc.
If the letters the students were given formed a new word then they would not have enough information to answer "yes."
use the very Dazzling equation
The phrase "after a moment of thinking" might be better stated as "given the previous answer(s)" or, "I didn't know before, but now I do." Their manner of answering is part of the puzzle which determines that 'dog' is the secret word. It's the only possibility which Cheryl can't know until hearing the first two answers.
No, it's not the case. The point of this puzzle is that you don't know for certain whether Bernard needed Albert's answer or not. We simply know Albert is asked first, then Bernard.
If you only take the answers, then you could get the same responses for:
Albert: "C", Bernard: "H", Cheryl: "O"
or
Albert: "C", Bernard: "H", Cheryl: "X"
In both cases, all three have unique letters and would all answer yes.
@@RebelKeithy lol, they know the 3 letters are from one word
Chris Miller, you are absolutely right !! Everyone else is making this more difficult than it needs to be. It is pretty obvious that WHEN it was Bernard's Turn to Answer the question , Bernard COULD HAVE Answered RIGHT AWAY, But NO , Bernard Didn't answer right away , Bernard needed extra TIME , TO THINK ABOUT IT , after hearing Alberts answer. , So stop saying , everybody out there, that "HAS" Could have been an answer, the ONLY answer is DOG , plan and simple
Got it aswell! For everyone saying it could be "cat" it could not because in cheryls point of view, guys could go for "max" x being first and m being bernards pick. Her 'a' would be possible for cat and max so she could not know which it is.
If you think logically, you can’t have included the word 'has' to the last step
If Bernard had got either the letter 'h' or 's', he would've answered 'yes' immediately, without replying after thinking for a moment
exactly , the word is cat this the only logical answer
Okay, so what you're saying is Albert could have gotten C, H, I, O, S, or X, which means the words that are left are (C)AT, D(O)G, (H)A(S), MA(X), and D(I)M. Tag is out. Now, Bernard knows the word but only after a moment of thinking about what Albert has said. This means he didn't get A, D, and M, because they show up multiple times and H and S because Bernard wouldn't require time to think if he had a totally unique letter. So he must have gotten T or G, and the word must be Cat or Dog. I don't think it can be solved because Bernard needed to think for a moment.
This video is entirely false when it tries to allow Bernard to have H or S. Bernard would have immediately responded had it been either of these two letters, so his hesitation tells us without a doubt that the only two words are CAT and DOG. While the students know the word, there is absolutely no way we can know it.
"Bernard would have immediately responded had it been either of these two letters"
How do you know that?
Because as with Albert, Bernard only needs a split second to see that there is only one word with his letter in it if the word is "has". He would have a unique letter from the start, being either H or S. Bernard doesn't need to hesitate to think, and Bernard already found out there was only a single word when Bernard first received his letter. Because Bernard is taking time to think, we know Bernard needed to consider the input that Albert provided in order to figure out the word.
No, we don't know for sure that Bernard _needed_ to think about it. The problem doesn't state that he _needed_ to think - merely that he _did_ think. How can you conclude that he was definitely thinking about the problem? How can you rule out, with absolute certainty, that he wasn't double checking that his letter was unique? How can you rule out, with absolute certainty, that he wasn't just thinking for a little bit to throw off other students in the class? How do you know that Bernard hadn't been zoning out while everything was being set up and didn't start checking his letters until after the teacher asked if he knew the word? If Cheryl is actually assumed to be perfectly logical, she _cannot_ conclude that Bernard's thinking meant that he didn't have a unique letter. There are other possibilities.
But if you're going to be like that, then you can throw in that the students may be lying and throw the whole riddle off. The logical conclusion of him putting "after a moment to think" having a meaning would be that A's answer influences B's answer.
MuffinsAPlenty it stated that they aced their logic exam and in albert's case it was not mentioned that he was thinking so you can infer that 'thinking' is some added information to consider in the riddle
There is a problem with the term "after a moment of thinking".
Because Bernard had to think about his answer, that would rule out the word "has" which has two unique letters.
Or maybe he understood that Albert surely didn't get "tag", so, after "deleting" "tag", words "cat", "dog" and "has" had two unique letters.
@@DonaldFranciszekTusk It doesn't matter, because if Bernard had one of the two unique letters in HAS, H or S, then he doesn't need any information from Albert whatsoever. He has a unique letter - he should already know the word. This would rule out HAS, which renders the puzzle unsolvable to us since we can no longer identify the unique letter that Cheryl has.
Except it doesn't rule out HAS. The time he spends thinking can mean anything. He might have just been using that time to count the letters and eliminate options.
@@arandombard1197 the same could be said about Albert, so why did he not need to think?
I arrived at the answer being "six" which you might be wondering about. I arrived at that because the question asks for the "secret" word, which does not automatically imply one of the known words. I am bad at logic and reasoning and you would never trust me to do either, but I am a fan of clear and concise language, so perhaps including something like, "And the teacher says, one of these six words is the secret word..." would make more sense than just assuming that everybody will broadly understand that this was the goal.
I remember once during a practice session for an AP English test making a clear and concise argument about my reading of an essay, and my teacher saying, "That is a clear and concise argument you have made about the essay you have read, but that isn't what the graders will want." The point being, if you want something specific and bounded, just say that you want something specific and bounded.
Teacher: "Peter, do you know the word?"
Peter: "Bird bird bird is the word"
Perfect !!
I eliminated has in the first step because h and s both uniquely identifies has, but only one student didn't have to consider the others' answers.
Very wale sayed
This explanation is incorrect and the problem is unsolvable. Everything about Alberts answer is right. Albert took no time to answer and knew immediately which word he had a letter from. When we get to Bernard, you say he took a moment to think and then answered yes. You say he had to eliminate TAG and then find out the unique letters. If Bernard had either H or S then he would have known his word already and not needed to eliminate TAG at all, H and S were unique the whole time. The only letters that Bernard can have are T or G, and the only letters that Cheryl can have are A and D. So they all know the word, but we can't solve for it.
think about this: somebody had to design the puzzle in the first place. that someone must've made sure that the puzzle is logically solvable. if you were to recreate the puzzle with computers it'd be perfectly solvable.
the reaction time of the students is something the puzzle designer couldn't've planned for. you're correct that the students had to think a moment because only A. had a unique letter but you wrongly assume that the puzzle is therefore unsolvable.
Wrong. Bernard's thinking time has no bearing. He could have wanted to do the elimination even though he didn't need to. So Cheryl can't discount the word HAS, and therefore can't say Yes with A for Cat. So it is solvable and it's Dog. And that's final.
@@ivanabcdefg9375 Cheryl can discount HAS. The "moment of thinking" here plays a role as well, since this implies that Bernard can't tell the word right from the get go. Since Cheryl knew that he still need to think about it (considering they are all proficient in logic), then she knew Bernard doesn't have a unique letter. So, CAT can still be an answer.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who took the social cues from the three students and came to a different answer
Riddle : You go at red, but stop at green. What am I?
Answer - czcams.com/video/fyVVEWnldKw/video.html
Oh have you not heard? It was my understanding that everyone had heard…
OH WELL THE BIRD, BIRD, BIRD, BIRD BIRD IS THE WORD. OH WELL THE BIRD, BIRD, BIRD, BIRD BIRD IS THE WORD. OH WELL THE BIRD, BIRD, BIRD, BIRD BIRD IS THE WORD. OH WELL THE BIRD, BIRD, BIRD, BIRD BIRD IS THE WORD. DON’T YOU KNOW ABOUT THE BIRD? WELL EV'RYBODY KNOWS THAT THE BIRD IS THE WORD. OH WELL THE BIRD, BIRD, BIRD, BIRD BIRD IS THE WORD. OH WELL THE BIRD… SURFINNN BIRD.
Robobrine :D
Heard what?
@@Robobrine BEBBEBEBEBSBSBABSABSABGAGAGAGAGAG GAAAAAAAAH.... (dead)
Oh my god Peter, are you alright?
....ABAMA UMA MA MAO, ABA UMA MAMAO. UMAMA MAO ABA UMA MAMAU.
WOOT! I figured it out.
I used reductive logic though so once I knew a word was *not* there, I subsequently *removed* any word it didn't share letters with.
This left me with Cat Has Max and Dog. To which Has and Max both have A meaning Bernard wouldn't have been able to tell what word Albert knew. Reducing the possible words down to Cat and Dog for Cheryl.
Cheryl must then have had the unique letter from there, however the only letters she could have been given were either D or A, and of the 4 words Bernard had logically reduced it to, A appears in 3 of the 4, while D only appears once. Thus Cheryl must have had D.
This reduces our word pool down to JUST Dog from Cat and Dog.
I eliminated the word "has" after the second step. I reasoned that if Bernard's letter was either h or s, then he would have very quickly known the word (since these letters appear only in "has"), even before hearing Albert's response. Bernard would not have needed to take time to think after hearing Albert's response. But since Bernard actually did take a moment to think after hearing Albert's response, Bernard must not have already known the word before hearing Albert's response. Therefore, Bernard does not have h or s.
If I have reasoned properly from there, this leaves either cat or dog as a possible correct answer.
I don't think that Bernard could have had H or S even if we ignore the actual solution. Note that he thinks for a moment; if he had h or s that would uniquely identify the word "has" and so he wouldn't need to continue the logic. Because he needs to think we can conclude that he wouldn't have had h or s even if we didn't know what Cheryl was going to do.
' has ' contains two unique letters ,meaning two of the people mentioned could've identified the word instantaneously without albert's note , so 'has' is eliminated immediately
Not true. In order to reach any conclusion other than has, you have to assume that the letters are handed out in a specific order and that each child is reliant on the letter before in order to reach the same answer.
In order to reach the answer HAS, the only thing you have to assume is that each child is expected to find the same word as every other child.
So, even if Albert were given the letter A, then HAS would be his only logical conclusion.
It's the only word that doesn't rely on any sequences, assumptions, or having to consider how long the children thought.
> Not true. In order to reach any conclusion other than has, you have to assume that the letters are handed out in a specific order and that each child is reliant on the letter before in order to reach the same answer.
The order the letters are given out doesn't matter. If Albert gets his letter first or last he'll still have the same letter. What is important is the order they respond to the teacher. Albert responds first and this logic of Albert 1st, Bernard 2nd and Cheryl 3rd is important to solving the puzzle and used by Presh in his explanation - remember Bernard could not have gotten DOG (remember his letter was G) without Albert ruling out TAG which he could assume based on Albert's response which came before his.
The problem's issue is what a "moment of thinking" is and the impact it has on their decision.
@Randolph Hillert The "moment of thinking" information shouldn't appear then.
You can't put something that can catastrofically change the point of view in a logic puzzle and then say it's "irrelevant".
If he said that Albert wore a brown shirt, Bernard had pet owl and Cherryl had a big mustache, that would be "irrelevant".
But "moment of thinking, that was needed ONLY by Bernard and Cherryl was something that changed the perspective completely
I disagree. I think a possible answer could be “has”
Okay.
If Albert has figured the word out then it could be only the word that has a unique letter. This letter can be "C", "O", "H", "S", "X", "I". So, it can't be "tag". And this is what Bernard has figured out after he has heard Albert saying "Yes", that it can't be the word "tag".
There is also one moment about these words: 5 of them contain only 1 unique letter each. So, if Albert has figured out the word then he definitely received a unique letter and the Albert and Cheryl could not receive a unique letter.
If Bernard has received a letter that is not "T", "A", or "G" then it would have been impossible for him to figure out the word, so he definitely received "T", "A" or "G" and that means the word we search for contains one of these letters. That rules out "dim". If Bernard has received "A" it would have been also impossible for him to figure out the word, because there are more than 1 word except of "tag" that contains this letter. That rules out "has" and "max".
So the last one could receive "D" or "A" only. So it can be "cat" or "dog".
Ah, no, the word "has" contains two unique letters! This is where I have failed.
No, Bernard wouldn't have thought for a time before if it was "has" as both H and S appear once, so it can be "cat" or "dog". You are correct and MindYourDecisions weren't.
It's simple. The word depends on whether Albert said yes first or together with Bernard, and whether Cheryl is aware of it.
If Albert and Bernard said yes together, and Cheryl is aware of it, then the word is has.
If Albert said yes before Bernard, and Cheryl is aware of it, then the word is cat.
If Cheryl is not aware of the order but follows them in saying yes anyway, then the word is dog.
I think what threw me off is that the description of puzzle using “one of the words” meant to me that the 3 letters are from any words on the board. Not sure if it’s intentional, but I think “same word” or similar would be a better definition of the puzzle
I find this problem deliciously flawed.
I have never encountered a problem where eliminating more possiblities leaves the problem unsolvable.
Assumption:
1. By pausing, Bernard and Cheryl require the information from the person preceeding them.
2. Given that Albert instantly answers 'yes' and Bernard does not, Albert has a Unique Letter and Bernard does not.
Presh's solution doesn't use assumption 2 and seems legit.
BUT, assumption 2 is a valid one and if you accept it, causes the problem to be unsolvable because it also removes 'HAS' from the second list of words Bernard could choose from.
People that don't accept assumption 2, then must also ignore assumption 1, which makes Presh's solution invalid.
Weird eh?
John Seravic why would not accepting assumption 2 ignore assumption 1? I mean you could make millions of assumptions, but you know. It’s whatever. I think that just because someone “instantly answers yes” doesn’t determine anything, that’s a feeling, not logic, so what? Just because I run into a bathroom it doesn’t mean I have to go to the restroom I mean pure logic shouldn’t have assumptions, it should be numbers on a page, assumptions are feelings, something we will form by how we were raised or our thinking process, you can “Let X be” whatever the hell you want, but assuming X is something makes millions of possibilities
John Seravic this problem needs to be worded better, for it just makes you assume, there needs to be a basis not a loose mindset, this problem is assuming that you have the same mindset as the person who made this, the same assumptions
technically you can argue that bernard pauses for a different reason. you could say "he is unsure what letter is on his paper, and has to pause to ensure he's reading the right one."
to be fair, though, you can argue most anything on technicalities.
This is one of the rare instances where MindYourDecisions is flat wrong.
The word could have been 'cat' aswell as 'dog'. Cheryl could have identified 'cat' by ruling out 'has'. Bernards hesitation would have made 'has' impossible. And cheryl would not have missed that.
My answer, after I paused the video, was "cat OR dog". And that is still my answer. It took a couple of minutes' thinking. But the thinking has been done, and the cat-OR-dog answer is still correct, who ever may insist on the wrong ONLY-dog answer. MindYourDecisions should admit their mistake ☝💪👏
The problem is that in order for Cheryl to eliminate "has", she has to _assume_ what Bernard was thinking about. It's a subtle point, but then her conclusion would not be perfectly logical, as she's making an extra assumption which is not guaranteed to be correct. Bernard could have been thinking about eating lunch, for all she knows.
While I think it is a very plausible thought process you went through (I actually did the same thing), Cheryl would not have been perfectly logical here.
MuffinsAPlenty, I see what you mean. But if Cheryl could not rule out that Bernard was being unfocused, then she would neither be able to rule out that either Bernard or Albert had a speech impediment that made them say yes when they meant no, or that they were plain dumb. Both scenarios would imply assumptions on Cheryl's part, albeit assumptions consistent with the info presented in the video. Without making these assumptions Cheryl would need a letter that appeared only once among the six words, to be able to determine the word. And since none of the six words consist of three unique letters, then, without these kinds of assumptions, there is no way all three students could have answered 'yes'. We can therefore deduce that some of the students know (or 'assumes') that some of the other students are top logicians. There is therefore TWO POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS to the question: 'Which of the six words is spelled by the three pieces of paper?' Only four can be ruled out.
So I also at one point thought that Bernard’s pause meant HAS was out of the question. However, I realized that, for a perfectly logical argument, we can’t use the assumption of what Bernard’s pause means. I know it’s *possible* that the pause means he could not have an H or S, but there is no actual logical basis for that conclusion as fact. Realistically, the pause could be because he’s reading slowly, he was double-checking, etc. So if that was meant to imply that he only knew after Albert says yes, then we’re deviating from pure logic and reasoning in favor of our assumption of what the writer might be implying as well as our personal interpretations of the pause. His swiftness wasn’t implied when it clarified that they all do well in logic exams.
And even if we did take it into account, that doesn’t mean Cheryl did or would as a logical person. If she’s had A, then she realistically wouldn’t have been able to answer confidently unless she knew Bernard definitely didn’t have H or S, which is not confirmed. It’s only implied. Her ultimate confident answer (which I say is confident because we’ve been told they ace their logic exams, which is meant to indicate they are correct) indicates that she must have D and the word is DOG.
So that’s why I think the video’s reasoning makes sense from a purely logical standpoint. Whether this is how we are intended to read it or not is a different story 🤷♀️
I mean, all that said, there’s technically quite a few assumptions we have to make in any riddle like this so 🤣 this is just my way of rationalizing this process.
i think you're making a linguistic argument to nullify the implied logic from the [thinks for a moment and] but in that case you would have to also nullify the implied logic from the [always ace their logic exams] to maintain consistency in your interpretation of the question (always "acing" logic exams != always apply perfect logic). If they cannot trust the others to be applying perfect logic, they could not be able to reduce out "tag" and then "max dim" in the first place. perhaps the individuals in this question still would act as though their partners are making correct claims, but the puzzle seems fundamentally uninteresting without a "perfect logic" clause.
in other words, linguistically, the [thinks for a moment and] might not mean anything to any person in a real situation, but it is implied that we should understand it to mean [given the previous answer(s)].
There is an argument to be made that the [given the previous answer(s)] is redundant information for Bernard coming to his answer, but that seems like bad form for a logic puzzle. unless the point is to generate controversy in a comment section i suppose
Maybe Bernard is very good at logic (as the problem states) but it takes him a little longer to count the letters, hence the pause? At least, Cheryl couldn't be sure the reason for the pause. Leaving "has" as not eliminated.
It can be cat, because if Bernard got the world "t", the only doubt is between Tag and Cat, but after he think about he realised that cannot be Tag, so he presume that the world is cat. Cheryl, based on the same conclusion, with an "a" exclude all other possibilities, because there is only one world that both Albert and Bernard can know, and the world is Has, but if the world on the paper was has, Bernard didn't had to think about, so we can assume that the world isn't Has, and all the other words with an "a" cannot be discovered if Bernard got a word that isn't exclusive, but "t". Letter t is the only one that apeares more than one time, but after reason makes you get on the correct word.
CAT is also a sollution. Albert had D, Bernie T(his options were cat and tag, but since Albert was sure it could only be cat) and Cheryl had A and she knew the word is cat because Bernie needed time to think (cus if the word was HAS either Bernie or Cheryl wouldn't have needed time to think)
I do not agree with the letter being "has". I thought "has" can totally be eleminated at first since both h and s appear only once. Therefore the first person must have got either h or s. Either second or third person has got the other unique letter, which should be enough for them to answer spontaneously rather than taking a moment, with this logic the answer should be "cat".
Pls correct if I am wrong.
First of all, forget about the pause, it's a perfect logic answer so the pause could mean he's thinking but could also be deliberate, contemplative or unrelated and this possibility renders it irrelevant to the solution which is definitely dog.
First thing to understand is that they know the letters they have, I know that this might sound obvious but I don't think it is considering most of the comments I've been reading , we are the ones that have to figure out what letter each one has it would be extremely easy to figure it out if you were one of the players. Now to the problem:
The first player definitely has a unique letter that would immediately eliminate TAG. The second player despite of the pause could still have a unique letter which would mean the word is "HAS" but that would stump the third person with the letter "A" since she wouldn't be able to decide between "HAS" and "CAT" after considering the possibility that player 2 doesn't have a unique letter. "MAX" could fit that criteria except that would mean player 1 got the unique letter "X" and player 2 the letter "M" but player 2 wouldn't be able to decide between "MAX" and "DIM" which also has a unique letter and an "M" Leaving DOG as the only logical answer and only to be discovered in that particular order Player 1 "O" Player 2 "G" Player 3 "D"
Player 3 wouldn't be able to figure it out before Player 2 since the word "DIM" also has the letter "D"
the word has should be crossed out from the start
it contains 2 unique letters, so 2 people should have know about it without pausing to think for a moment.
If you had gone by that logic, iit can be either cat or dog
Nah... that is too many assumptions. Could be he thought about feeding his cat for a sec and therefore paused... or its just his personality. We cannot read anything into a small pause without making far too many assumptions.
@@alexanderishere1857 the whole puzzle used assumptions to solve the problem. At this point any theory is valid if it has proper backing (evidence/support).
I agree with what several others have pointed out, since Bernard had to think about it, he could not have the letters H or S, since if he had those he would no immediately Some argue that there's nothing saying he is a perfect logician but that has nothing to do with it, if he had H or S he would obviously, unless he was an idiot, realize that the word was the one word on the board with those letters in it, he would not have to think about it.
The way i did it i was left with either Dog or Cat. Albert can have the letters C, O, H, S, X or I.
Bernard can have the letters T or G, as these are the only letters that would allow him to guess correctly solely on the basis that Albert knows the word.
Cheryl can have A or D as these would allow her to guess correctly, but there's no way of knowing which.
I like the concept and these kinds of puzzles but this was poorly written.
I have the same idea, too!
The answer can also be "CAT", where:
Albert = C
Bernard = T
Cheryl = A
When the teacher ask Albert, he was sure the word was cat because the letter "C" is unique on the list.
When the teacher ask Bernard, he was originally uncertain about the word because "T" appeared on two different words "CAT" and "TAG". But following Albert's logic, he took a while of thinking to find out that "TAG" wasn't the word since it contains no unique letters. (The fact that Albert could know which was the word imply that Albert was holding a unique letter.)
When the teacher ask Cheryl, she was originally uncertain about the word because "A" appeared on four different words "CAT", "HAS", "MAX" and "TAG". Following Bernard's logic, he was originally uncertain about the word, but the fact that it took a while of thinking for him to find out which letter it was implies that the elimination of the word "TAG" (by the logic of Albert) helped him to find the solution. That's why he must be holding one of the letters "T", "A" and "G". But Cheryl herself was holding "A", so the word must contain "T" or "G", i.e. either "CAT" or "DOG". Since she was holding the letter "A", she knows the answer too.
Sorry, nope. Thinking time is not part of the solution. CAT is not possible. If Cheryl got an A, then at that point, as far as she knows both CAT and HAS are still possible. Thus Cheryl could not have gotten an A. If Cheryl had gotten the A, which appears in both CAT and HAS, then she wouldn't know the answer. Since TAG was eliminated by Bernard's answer, C, T, H and S are all unique in the remaining 5 words.
How do we (outside observers) know the answer? Because we now know that Cheryl could not have gotten the A.
Cat is obviously possible. There is nothing saying time isn't a part of the solution and you cant make that assumption. I am not making the assumption that time is relevant I am arguing that since it is not implicitly written that it is or isn't, that leaves room for interpretation. Your interpretation is that Time isn't relevant, but you have nothing to back that up any more than anyone claiming time is relevant. Since it is stated they are perfect logicians, and since it is not stated that Albert had to think about it, and he had to have an unique letter, it is fair to assume that since Bernard had to think about it, he did not have a unique letter, and therefore Has is out of the equation. also added by the fact that Cheryl had to think about it, just like it said Bernard had to, and she obviously did not have a unique letter. implying that not having a unique letter forces them to think. but Obviously, as i said earlier, there is nothing stating in the question it self that states whether time is relevant or not. You cannot make the claim that Dog is the only possible solution, because the way that it is vaguely written allows for interpretation.
It is irrelevant how long thinking time is. The point is that they have to think. Cheryl has to think, We know she does not have an unique letter. Albert does not have to think, and we know he has an unique letter. Bernard has to think. Given that they all ace their logic exams, it is reasonable to assume they all think alike and that therefore Bernard did not have an unique letter.
The content creator introduced the variables himself. If thinking time is irrelevant, then why is it in the riddle at all? I do not think the intent was that Cat and Dog should be answers. But me and many others are arguing that the way the question is phrased it opens up the possibility of both of those, as you can easily make the argument as to why time is relevant. You're making the assumption time is not relevant, myself and others are simply saying that the way the question is phrased it it does not leave out time as a part of the solution.
I get what you're saying. My take on the puzzle creator's intent is that it is solvable for a single answer. Thus I think that the description that Bernard thought about it for a moment, while Albert is missing that description, was not intended as a variable in the problem. This can be a logic puzzle, or it can be a word game. I think it's a logic puzzle.
I couldnt figure it out cause I excluded "has" for bernard because it says he had to think for a second but "h" and "s" are letters that only appear once, so he would have said "yes" immediatly like albert did...
Awesome puzzle, great explanation!
Here's how I did:
The only way for Albert to know what the word is, is if he was dealt a unique letter (a letter that appears in exactly one of the words).
So, we know that Albert was dealt one of these letters: C, O, H, S, X or I.
This means that the word can not be "tag".
It also means that Bernard is dealt one of these letters: A, T, D, G, H, S or M.
However, if Bernard was dealt H or S, he would know the word straight away (since they are unique letters), but we know he had to think about it, so we can scratch those two letters, leaving A, T, D, G and M.
The only letters from these that don't leave Bernard with multiple choices are T and G (since he knows the word is not "tag" and the only other word that contains T is "cat", and the only other word that contains G is "dog").
This tells us that Albert was dealt either C or O.
Similarly, we now know that Cheryl was dealt either A or D, and in both cases she can tell what the word is (because she knows that the word is either "cat" or "dog").
It is therefore impossible for us to tell what the word is; all we know is that it is either "cat" or "dog".
Jerry Nilsson Just because he thinks about it doesn’t determine if it is H or S, thinking about something is something everyone does, it doesn’t determine anything, it is just there to mess you up
Jerry Nilsson PLUS, using your logic, when the teacher asks Albert if he knows the word, and he says yes, he is lying, for there are multiple possibilities, he is contradicting what is true, PLUS, we are assuming that the others have the same logic I mean it’s so not well written it makes me puke
Why does the problem state Albert responds with "Yes" while Bernard responds only "after a moment of thinking"?
For the solution "DOG" the "G" that Bernard gets is NOT unique (its also present in the word TAG). He could only rule out TAG because of Albert's response. If he didn't need Albert's response the problem would have stated just "Yes". Its the ambiguity introduced by the "after a moment of thinking" which logically would not be needed in the puzzle if Bernard's letter was also unique from the start.
@@connallbooper9107 This is not how logic problems are solved. They give the information for a reason and it is implied that each student is equally intelligent. Thus, if Bernard was given a unique letter, he would only have to think a moment if Albert had previously also had to think for a moment. Since, with H or S he could solve the problem just as fast as Albert.
Jerry Nilsson I wish my face was as beautiful as your profile picture
Here's my puzzle:
Amy likes M, T and V.
Kevin likes B, C and D.
Simon likes N and Z.
None of them likes F, G or R.
They all like the initial of their own name, but not each other's.
Two questions:
Who likes W?
Which letters do they all like?
Conway79 Amy probably likes to chant BLM because of MTV.
Conway79 But for real tho does this have a number pattern solution, or did the joke fly right above my head?
as ds It's a real puzzle, the MTV is just coincidence.
as ds Actually I don't get your reference. What's BLM?
I'm missing something. Is every letter liked and/or disliked by at least or precisely one person?
With only this, my answers are rather trivial and boring.
I think this puzzle only works if the teacher asks just once. "Does any one know the secret word?" Albert would not have taken much of a moment at all. Looking at his paper, he would have not needed the others' responses (or hesitancies) to know the word. A (c, o, h, s, x, or, i) let him know immediately. The other two, however, need to play off of each other's delay in answering. Cheryl's continued delay let Bernard know what letters she couldn't have had, leading him to ascertain from his letter what the secret word was.
Bernard couldn't have H or S, otherwise he'd have a unique letter and wouldn't need extra moments to think. And Cheryl understands this.
This means the answer could be CAT or DOG.
This appears to be wrong. Albert has a unique letter, we all agree. Bernard's letter isn't unique; he gives his answer based on the fact that Albert answered yes. So what this means is that Bernard's letter is in 2 words, one with a unique letter, and one without. Bernard wasn't sure before, but Albert confirmed that his letter is unique. We don't actually need Cheryl, as there is only one word with a unique letter, and also has a letter that appears in a word without any unique letters, and that's CAT. Albert had C, Bernard had T, and Cheryl had A.
Hier00 ha yes!
Hier00 I actually solved it like you, but I got the word "dog". Albert would have the "o", Bernard would have the letter "g" and Cheryl would have the letter "d". I was happy because I thought I had found an alternate solution to the puzzle that only requires 2 people, but looking at your comment I see that this logic can lead to different answers and I just happened to get the correct one.
it could be dog as well
no unique answer to the problem
lopes doria You're right, DOG does also work. But the point is in the video he is seeking for Bernard's letter to be unique, which doesn't make sense to me.
Hier00 Yes, the phrasing makes it kind of confusing. Though, I guess the correct solution would be the one said in the video since it gives only one result and uses all the information given by the problem.
I have a solution for the word "has". I am sorry for my not perfect english.
So, lets say Albert got the letter H, so he knows the word is "has". Then it is Bernards turn. He has the letter S, so he also knows it has to be "has". Now Cheryl could conclude that both are sure they know the word, because of a unique letter in all of the six words. Now "has" is the only word with 2 unique letters and so she also knows, that the word has to be "has". Please tell me if I am wrong.
The moment of thinking of Bernard is that hes makes sure hes right. He might be someone like me, whos always triple checking everything in a task.
Your logic is also valid. Since we don’t know what they are thinking in their “moment of thinking”. We also don’t know that all 3 of their yes’s are connected. Well we could understand that Cheryl’s yes is connected to the previous 2 yes’s but for Bernard we don’t know if he got his “yes” after understanding why Albert said “yes”. I hope that made sense.
I interpreted Bernard’s moment of thinking as a way to demonstrate he did not have a unique letter and had to do some logicking. If this is true, that would eliminate the word HAS and make the A in CAT a unique letter as well, which means the answer could be CAT or DOG. That is the answer I came up with.
I’m 15 years old, I was able to solve this one. I’m really proud of myself!
"Thr teacher announces that each paper contains a different letter from one of the words on the board"
Can anybody translate that to english? thanks.
Yes, me too, I didn’t get it at all until I watched the whole video.
“The teacher announces that...” = The teacher makes everyone know (now Albert, Bernard, and Cheryl knows)
“...each paper contains a different letter...” = each paper contains a letter (one single alphabet)
“...a different letter...” = the letters in each paper are different from one another (one paper contains one letter, the other paper contains another letter that is not the same)
“...from one of the words on the board.” = the letters *comes* from *only* one word on the board (all three letters are taken from the same word on the board)
It also means, in the three different papers, the three different letters will spell out one of the words of the board.
And that word, is the ‘secret word’.
So, (misinterpretation: “a different letter, from different words”), it is not taking three letters from anywhere on the board, but from just one of the words.
So, (misinterpretation: “a letter, different from, one of the words”) it is not having three random English letters that are not found in any of the words/letters on the board.
salamat
Often these puzzles, interesting as they are, are not intelligently phrased and lead to unnecessary confusion. Language is not their strong point.
@@MrAnglow1 Thank you, kind stranger.
i was confused on the “different letter from each of the words” thing and i thought their word was spelled out of letters that weren’t in the six words, so i thought the word was “yes”
Exactly. "Different from each of the words" means their letters are not contained in any of those words, which would make the riddle impossible. So I thought "yes" too because that would be the 'trick' answer, right?
@@anglaismoyen yup
I also thought for a second that the word could be yes
Bit of a late post, but I have a question to this logic puzzle. If the secret word is cat, Alberts letter must be c.
Bernards letter cannot be a since there are too many options, so it must be t, and since it can be deduced that tag can never work for the secret word, Bernard must conclude cat is the secret word after a bit of thinking. Cheryls letter is then a, so her choices are between cat, has, max (since tag will always be out).
If the secret word was max, Alberts letter would have had to be x, and if her letter is a, Bernards letter must have been m. But Bernard would not be able to isolate between dim and max with the letter m, so Bernards letter cant be m, and the secret word cant be max.
If the secret word was has, Albert could have had either h or s, and Bernard the other. Bernard will already have known the secret word before Albert even gave is answer! Since we are informed that Bernard "thinks for a while" before answering, and Cheryl notices this, she must be able to dismiss has as the secret word as well.
So, I think cat also fulfils the logic requirements - where is my reasoning wrong?
Edit: yeah obviously a bunch of people have posted this as well :P would still like to know the answer!
The major problem with this puzzle and how it's formulated is the wide variety of manners in which one can interpret "bernard thinks, then answers"
Why is bernard thinking? Yes, we eliminated the word "tag" from our excercise from the get-go. But is bernard thinking through this exercise from scratch, knowing only that Albert got it immediately? Or has he ALREADY eliminated "tag", and is NOW pausing to think AGAIN, AFTER said elimination, which is what MindYourDecisions did?
This is crucial, because it might be entirely possible that Bernard has a letter corresponding with the word "tag". If he does, and he's pausing strictly to first and foremost solve the initial premise of Albert having a unique letter, then his pause can simply be interpreted as one owing to him having a letter corresponding with tag.
If THAT is the case, however, then "tag" still becomes part of the equation. And by keeping tag in the equation, bernard's pause might be attributed to him going over "tag", seeing that it is NO LONGER viable, and him inferring that NOW and only now does he know the real word.
If THAT is the case, however, then "has" is no longer an option, because if bernard had an H or an S, or any of the other unique letters he would have known the word IMMEDIATELY. Since we know he DIDN'T know immediately, this means he must have a letter corresponding with TAG, which only leaves Cat or Dog as viable options, seeing as how Albert's answer removed Tag from the viable options.
Suppose Albert had an O and Bernard had a G, Cheryl must have a D, making "dog" the real word. However, if Albert had a C and Bernard had a T, this would mean Cheryl's "A" becomes viable as well, because "has" has been eliminated.
As such, we cannot possibly know what letter Cheryl has, making the excercise unsolvable.
All of this is possible strictly from the premise that Bernard is still thinking through "tag", which this video contradicts for no seemingly explicable reason.
Therefore, the puzzle's formulation is to blame for any possible confusion on the audience's part.
the only way to solve this is to assume that the puzzle IS solvable. If the puzzle IS solvable, then Bernard's pause needs to be interpreted as happening after "tag" has already been eliminated, making "has" a possibility, removing "a" from Cheryl's possible letters, leaving only dog.
can u just say ur name slowly and properly
FRESH POLLIEWANTACRACKER
cat is also right :D albert get c, bernhard t and cheryl a.
@Randolph Hillert Because Bernard needed "a moment of thinking". That sentence changes EVERYTHING
@@typowyuzyszkodnik7406 the “moment of thinking” logic that they use in the video is very bad
Hey Mr. Presh Talwalkar, I worked out the puzzle but I figured out that even "HAS" has an equal probability of being the secret word. Could you please tell me why "HAS" cannot be the secret word ?????
I paused it and thought for a while what is the answer.
BECAUSE I FRICKIN THOUGHT I WAS SUPPOSED TO CRACK A SECRET WORD.
It’s nice to have a more easy one once in a while. Thanks for curing my boredom once again!
This is confusing me
Use the eK of Z back a
Albert, Bernard and Cheryl are in some strange situations
Actually, there is a faster solution. Albert needs a unique letter, Bernard a letter that has goes into a word with a unique letter (since Albert was able to solve). With Cheryl, she needs a letter that when combined with the other two clues, means she can identify the word. If she had 'a', there are 4 words. From the uniqueness requirements, there is more than one possibility, and therefore, Cheryl can't have been given 'a', so scratch all four words with 'a', leaving the word 'dog' or 'dim'. Albert would have been given the 'i' or the 'o'. If Albert was given the 'i', Bernard couldn't tell if it was 'dim' or 'mix' if he was given the letter 'm', or 'dim' or 'dog' if he was given 'd'. Therefore, Albert had to have been given the 'o', and the word is 'dog'.
My guess is "dog". Let's see!
edit: nailed it
Yeah, even though it's not dog, both 'cat' and 'dog' could be correct, because you can count out the word 'has' after bernard's answer.
Don't act smart if you just think everything a youtuber says is right.
It can't be 'dog' actually as Cheryl had to think *after* hearing Bernard's answer. If it had been 'dog' she would have had D and would have known the word as soon as she hear Albert's answer.
Not entirely true. You're assuming that Albert has a unique letter and that the other children need him to have a unique letter.
However, If I gave you an A and asked you to pick out the secret word, what would it be?
I bet your answer would be HAS, as it's the only word that doesn't share a letter with another word.
So regardless of which order the letters are handed out, and regardless of what letters the other children have, it's only only answer each child would be able to consider unique.
Wow, the replies to this comment are pretty bad.
CrazyOrc - While I understand where your argument is coming from, I don't think it's a very strong one. Just because Bernard took a moment to think does not mean he _had_ to take a moment to think. Essentially, you're meta-gaming the problem. You're using the fact that this is a contrived logic problem to make inferences about the situation. The problem with this approach is that Cheryl is _not_ reading a contrived logic problem. She's inside the scenario. She would not have the benefit of thinking "this wouldn't be included in this logic problem if it weren't important!" All that Cheryl knows is that Bernard paused for a moment before answering the teacher. Why did Bernard pause? How could Cheryl know? Maybe Bernard wanted to double check really quickly before answering. If Cheryl cannot rule out "has" from the information _she_ is given, then it's irrelevant how much more information _we_ are given.
Paul Kennedy - completely wrong. If Cheryl had a "D", then after hearing Albert's answer, both "DOG" and "DIM" are still possibilities! For all Cheryl knows, Albert could have had "I". "DIM" is the only word with an "I" in it. So Cheryl absolutely would _not_ have known right after Albert answered.
MrNeutral10 - I can't even begin to follow your argument. "HAS" has an "A" in it, which is a letter shared by three other words! It's patently false to state that "I bet your answer would be HAS, as it's the only word that doesn't share a letter with another word". Plus, it seems you think the order in which the letters are handed out matters. I don't see how this could be true.
This just seems nonsensical
I didn't come up with the entire solution step by step but my instincts thought it was most likely cat or dog just glancing over the unique letters. Turns out both could be right and are the only possible solutions based on the wording of the question so I'm pretty happy
I've identified a fatal flaw with this problem. 'has' can also be eliminated in step two using the following logic:
- If the word is 'has', we know Albert must have either an 'h' or an 's'.
- If Bernard has an 'a', he wouldn't know the answer because the word could also be 'cat' or 'max'.
- If, however, Bernard has the unique letter that Albert doesn't have (e.g. if Albert has 'h' and Bernard has 's'), Bernard wouldn't need to think about whether or not he knows the word, since neither of those letters appears in any other word. Bernard would know it instantly.
That leaves 'cat' and 'dog', which can both qualify as the answer under the given circumstances.
This one was actually pretty easy. Nice change of pace though, lmao.
I find the controversy about "cat" being a possibility more interesting.
The way the problem turns out after Bernard, you can keep "cat", "dog" and "has" and some people will take out "has" because of Bernard's hesitation.
Let's look at the possibilities.
If you don't take out "has":
1) in that case, Cheryl will either say "yes" because she got a "d" or "no", because she got an "a".
Since she answered "yes", we know the answer is "dog". If she answered "no", we would answer "no".
You can't take out "has" after the fact without contradicting yourself, to make "cat" possible.
It's the teapot fallacy that many seem to do.
If you do take out "has" before Cheryl speaks.
2) if Cheryl took it out as well, then whatever she says, her answer is "yes", but your answer is "no".
3)if Cheryl did not took it out, then the answer is "dog" because she said "yes".
Number 2) is consistent, except for a few things. You basically have to say that you know the answer as soon as Bernard hesitates and says "yes", so Cheryl is totally irrelevant. You essentially have decided that you will never know the word, only Cheryl will know whether it is "cat" or "dog".
But I don't think you can assume Cheryl would know Bernard hesitated, so there is no reason to believe she took out "has". We can because it is part of our test, but her test does not say Bernard hesitates, it only asks her whether she knows the word, assuming other people's truth claims, so I think it should be ruled out as an option if she is a perfect logician and not a body language expert of some sort. She gave a clear "yes" though, and it's just not based on logic if she got an "a". She would need to say she has suspicions to be perfectly logical, because there is no certainty there, nor is there when we take out the "has", it is base on assumptions like the only reason Bernard hesitates is because he is calculating, but he could be slow witted and perfectly logical, or be distracted somehow. So it does not make any logical sense for anybody to do that and claim to be certain of the answer. It's literally jumping to conclusion.
I can't believe I actually managed to solve it and just skipped over to the end to check if I got it correctly.
Teacher: Albert, do you know the word?
Albert: Hmm, I thi-
Peter: Bird.
Teacher: What?
Peter: Bird is the word.