Infedelity

[Mercuria]

page 3 =]

[DyfedG]

The answer is one. As previously pointed out, the women knew before the arrival of the fortune teller of some cheating. The arrival of the fortune teller made no ral difference to them.
For the men however, they were worried that the fortune teller may reveal names, so one of the philanderers (after a week of building up the courage) killed the fortune teller. Hence one man dead.

Nice page, came across it by accident, unfortunately don't really have much time for this.

[Teddy]

Well I belive that the answer to the puzzle infidelity is 0.I have some educated guesses behind this theory.Because if all women except the woman who's man is cheating on them is not aware because she is not told.So there fore if there was a cheating man the wife would not know about.The only people aware of it would be the other women in the village and the cheating man.Therefore as explained I belive the answer is 0 men are dead

[Mercuria]

go back and read the first post in this tread, please =]

[Ghost Post]

hmm..new here. well here's what i think: think that everyone in the town cheated since all of the men were afraid they were going to die. that makes all the men guilty.

[some guy]

DyfedG wrote:
[...]
For the men however, they were worried that the fortune teller may reveal names, so one of the philanderers (after a week of building up the courage) killed the fortune teller. Hence one man dead.
[...]
Why do you (and many others) assume that the fortune teller is a MAN? I suppose there is no law agains male fortune tellers, but whenever I picture a fortune teller I picture a woman!

The biggest mistake when dealing with any of these puzzles is to assume that the puzzle has any bearing on reality whatsoever. To find the solutions it is very important to remove as much friviolous detail as possible and not think in real-world terms, but instead in the pure abstration of logic and math. To try to see the real world in a puzzle will lead only to the folly.

[limey]

I'm confused with those who come to the conclusion that there were zero husbands cheating or killed, and also by the deductive reasoning used by those arguing that seven were killed (one for each night).

First, believing that the number of men cheating is zero isn't consistent with the information provied in the riddle, since it clearly states in two places that there are. Early on it says "almost all" of the men are faithful. And it refers to the fortune teller's claim that there are unfaithful men as a "truth." So unless we're going to assume that the riddle contains false information, which would render every explination no more valid than any other, we can conclude that there is a least one unfaithful husband.

As for the logic that there is one husband killed for each day, I feel like I'm either simply not getting it or that the reasoning is flawed. I keep thinking that first and only conclusion you can draw is that there is one unfaithful husband, since every woman, with the exception of the one who is being cheated on, would know of him. The woman who was unaware of who the culprit is would have to come to the conclusion that it is her husband. But beyond that I'm not sure how it follows that there must have been a second man, then a third, a forth, etc.

Could someone please explain this to me?

[Ghost Post]

also new here but i think no husbands were killed. The fortune teller is a fortune teller and therefore tells the future of peoples lives not the present (that would be a psychic or something, right?). He or she divulges information about husbands who will cheat in the distant future but not now, so although the wives know their husbands will cheat they cant kill them because they haven't cheated yet. New angle maybe but hopelessly wrong?

[Ghost Post]

Limey wrote:

[Andy]

I find it easier to illustrate with specifics - and from the coments here, I suspect some others would find it helpful also.

Case 1: 1 cheating husband
Suppose Arnold is the only cheating husband. Then Annie (his wife) doesn't know of any cheating husbands until she hears the fortune teller. She is then able to conclude that her husband must be cheating, so she kills him that night.

Case 2: 2 cheating husbands
Annie knows that Beth's husband Bob is cheating, but doesn't know of any others. She therefore expects that Beth is the only wife who didn't previously know about a cheater, so she expects Beth to reach the obvious conclusion and kill Bob that night. When Bob is still alive the next morning, Annie realises that Beth must know about another cheater - who can only be Arnold (annie would have known about any other one), so Arnold is a goner the second night. Beth, who already knew about Arnold, realizes the truth about Bob when Arnold survives the first night, so Bob also fails to wake up the second morning.

Case 3: 3 cheaters
Annie says to herself, "Beth's Bob and Connie's Carl will survive the first night, but not the second." (See case 2 for the reasoning that Annie imputes to Beth and Connie.) When Bob and Carl both survive the second night, Annie realizes that Case 2 doesn't apply; there must be a third cheater, who must be Arnold - so Arnold, Bob, and Carl die the third night.

Case 4: 4 cheaters
Annie expects Beth, Connie, and Darlene to kill Bob, Carl, and Doug the third night. When they don't, Annie realizes that there must be a fourth cheater - Arnold, of course. Beth, who knows about Arnold but not about Bob, expected Arnold, Carl, and Doug to die the third night - so all four men will die the fourth night.

Etc. On the sixth morning, all the women in the village know that there are at least 7 cheaters - and all but 8 know that there are at least 8. Annie, in particular, knows about 7 cheaters. She thinks that Beth knows about only 6, so she thinks about beth, "She knew about only 6 cheaters, but not about Bob. Now she must realize the truth about Bob, so he's living his last day." When Bob is still alive the next (seventh) morning, Annie realizes that Beth must have known about a seventh cheater. Since it couldn't have been Bob, and Annie knows about only 6 cheaters other than Bob, Annie realizes that the seventh cheater known to Beth must be Arnold. And so it goes.

Case 0 - the fortune teller was lying (or mistaken), and there aren't currently any cheating husbands in the village. All the husbands will go to bed confident of waking up the next morning - but they won't!

[RAH]

I'm new to all this and have a brief query. It doesn't actually say if men died any night in particular so what if there were only say 5 cheating husbands. After the 5th? night would it not stop. Therefore the coffin-maker would only have to make 5 coffins for 5 decyaing bodies.

[Kyp]

I understand the reasoning behind the progression of suspicious wives increasing one per night, but I see some unresolved issues:

The proposition that the husband wasn't killed the first night has no justification
.......suppose there was only 1 cheater? surely the progression would cease there. One suspicious wife, one dead husband...the progression hinges on there actually being more than 1 to prove there are 8 which is circular..what compells the wife to not kill her husband that same evenight ? Suppose all the wives get paranoid at once and kill their husbands after no result after 1 night, thinking they are the one being hoodwinked.

Who says that for anyone to be killed, there has to be a cheater...isn't the paranioa enough?

What if on the 3rd day, all these bodies turn up at once? Who says they cheated?

So 1 person may die, they all may die, or any integer in between may die.
The question is too ambiguous.

[cha]

Kyp states "The proposition that the husband wasn't killed the first night has no justification .......suppose there was only 1 cheater? surely the progression would cease there."
The puzzle states that for a week every woman wondered if her man was faithful. If there were only one cheater, it would have ended after the first night and no one would have wondered after that. No ambiguity.

[operageek]

you have to assume that no one dies the first six nights -- the riddle does not state this. this is the only way that all seven men will die on the seventh night.
the fortune teller stated that there was "at least one" man that was cheating. let's assume there WAS ONLY ONE man cheating. he would obviously die the first night b/c his wife would realize he was cheating -- subsequently, no one else would die the rest of the week...and so on for two cheating men, three cheating men, etc.

the only way one can arrive at the conclusion that seven men were cheating, and therefore seven men died, is to assume that no one died the first six nights. what if the fortune teller arrived on day eleven or day twenty? does the answer stay at seven men?

[principessa]

you have to assume that no one dies the first six nights -- the riddle does not state this. this is the only way that all seven men will die on the seventh night.
the fortune teller stated that there was "at least one" man that was cheating. let's assume there WAS ONLY ONE man cheating. he would obviously die the first night b/c his wife would realize he was cheating -- subsequently, no one else would die the rest of the week...and so on for two cheating men, three cheating men, etc.

the only way one can arrive at the conclusion that seven men were cheating, and therefore seven men died, is to assume that no one died the first six nights. what if the fortune teller arrived on day eleven or day twenty? does the answer stay at seven men?

[principessa]

you have to assume that no one dies the first six nights -- the riddle does not state this. this is the only way that all seven men will die on the seventh night.
the fortune teller stated that there was "at least one" man that was cheating. let's assume there WAS ONLY ONE man cheating. he would obviously die the first night b/c his wife would realize he was cheating -- subsequently, no one else would die the rest of the week...and so on for two cheating men, three cheating men, etc.

the only way one can arrive at the conclusion that seven men were cheating, and therefore seven men died, is to assume that no one died the first six nights. what if the fortune teller arrived on day eleven or day twenty? does the answer stay at seven men?