The Grey Labyrinth is a collection of puzzles, riddles, mind games, paradoxes and other intellectually challenging diversions. Related topics: puzzle games, logic puzzles, lateral thinking puzzles, philosophy, mind benders, brain teasers, word problems, conundrums, 3d puzzles, spatial reasoning, intelligence tests, mathematical diversions, paradoxes, physics problems, reasoning, math, science.

bonanova · Daedalian Member

OK friends, I didn't create this one. A colleague discussed it with me maybe 15 years ago. I haven't seen it anywhere since, but if it's a chestnut, someone just say so.

A man has two girlfriends, reachable only by train. One lives to the North, the other to the South. Being a man, he is incapable of deciding which to marry. Since a train leaves his station each hour to the North, and another leaves each hour to the South, he decides to leave his amorous visits to chance and let Fate decide for him.

Being a clever person, he creates a device that sounds an alarm at a random time of the day. Each day, promptly after the alarm sounds, he takes the 5-minute walk to his station and boards the next train to arrive: Northbound or Southbound. After a year has passed, he finds he has visited one of the girlfriends [turns out it was the one to the South] more than 300 times, and so he marries her.

Assuming his random time-of-day device was working properly, how could this have happened?
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AZu · Daedalian Member

The train for the North leaves slightly after the train for the South.

Zag · Tired of his old title

Actually, they are scheduled to leave at exactly the same time, but the train to the north is slowed down by all the chestnuts it is carrying, so it ends up leaving a little late.

Trojan Horse · Daedalian Member

Chestnuts roasting on an open thread...

Too soon for Christmas carols?

CzarJ · Hot babe

...chance?

MNOWAX · 0.999... of a Troll

insert "fat people riding on trains, eating chestnuts" joke here.
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enogenie · Icarian Member

What does romance or romanticisim mean to you? What does "romance" or "romanticism" means to you. How does your definition compare with 19th century romantic literature, art, and music?
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MNOWAX · 0.999... of a Troll

t doesn't.

Do i get points for assassain?
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Zag · Tired of his old title

OK. We really have to put in the code that prevents Icarian members from waking up any thread more than a year old.

On the other hand, it did produce a chuckle for me. I read through this, not realizing that it was old. I got to post #3 and thought, "good answer, I wish I'd thought of that." It wasn't until I went back up to see who had posted such a chestnut that I noticed who the author of post #3 was.