NationStates Jolt Archive

..I'm still REALLY hung up about the plane on a treadmill thing...HOW could so many people say no?!?

Anywho, I want to test how you guys think....So here's a little story, and a little question, and I want to see how long it will take for some-one to correctly answer the question...


Some-time last week, I went for a walk through a forest. I walked for hours and hours. I stubbed my toe, and encountered a dead body within an hour. But I still kept on going. And then I hit a clearing...WOW. There was a MASSIVE apple tree right smack-dab in the middle with apples! I was famished.....

So time past as I rested....and then I left the clearing...BUT I took no apples and I left no apples in the clearing...how?!? (If I ate apples they'd be in my colon, so i'd still be taking them...)(And if I excreted them, then i'd have left them....yes...the result of taking a dump counts as leaving them)

I've given you a clue...NOW let's see who'll get this first....:headbang:

The butler did it.

The butler did it.

No he didn't. It was Mrs Peacock in said clearing with a two-by-four.

..I'm still REALLY hung up about the plane on a treadmill thing...HOW could so many people say no?!?

Anywho, I want to test how you guys think....So here's a little story, and a little question, and I want to see how long it will take for some-one to correctly answer the question...


Some-time last week, I went for a walk through a forest. I walked for hours and hours. I stubbed my toe, and encountered a dead body within an hour. But I still kept on going. And then I hit a clearing...WOW. There was a MASSIVE apple tree right smack-dab in the middle with apples! I was famished.....

So time past as I rested....and then I left...BUT I took no apples and I left no apples...how?!? (If I ate apples they'd be in my colon, so i'd still be taking them...)(And if I excreted them, then i'd have left them....yes...the result of taking a dump counts as leaving them)

I've given you a clue...NOW let's see who'll get this first....
It's obvious... You starved yourself and left without eating, you just rested there!

Or you ate the dead body...

You stayed there till next spring, or at least till winter.

Or something else entirely.

Definitely one of those two. *wins*

You never said you touched or ate the apples at all.

Amirite? Prize?

You never said you touched or ate the apples at all.

Amirite? Prize?
Yeah, but I figured "leaving" them included leaving them untouched on the tree. I.e. I thought the apples were there when he got there but gone when he left.

Yeah, but I figured "leaving" them included leaving them untouched on the tree. I.e. I thought the apples were there when he got there but gone when he left.

He also never said all the apples were gone though.

He also never said all the apples were gone though.
Sure he did. If "I left no apples" includes ALL the apples, it means they were all gone.
If it doesn't include all apples, then it's an unclearly written question. After all, if he's not talking about the apples on the tree, what other apples are there that we could assume to be "left behind" and where do you draw the line? Apples half eaten, apples plucked and lying on the ground, apples still on the tree? I think we have to go with the latter.

Gah, way too much energy spent on this!

Sure he did. If "I left no apples" includes ALL the apples, it means they were all gone.
If it doesn't include all apples, then it's an unclearly written question. After all, if he's not talking about the apples on the tree, what other apples are there that we could assume to be "left behind" and where do you draw the line? Apples half eaten, apples plucked and lying on the ground, apples still on the tree? I think we have to go with the latter.

Gah, way too much energy spent on this!

So is everything in the world relevant to yourself?

I have the ability to do an infinite number of things. Every day when I walk into the public area, I have the potential to kill someone. Does every day I refrain from doing so indicate I have "left them alive"?

You're much closer than you think...

but to clarify, the dead body wasn't in the clearing...

bUt remember that i took no apples nor did i leave any apples...but, no i didn't leave half apples

So is everything in the world relevant to yourself?

I have the ability to do an infinite number of things. Every day when I walk into the public area, I have the potential to kill someone. Does every day I refrain from doing so indicate I have "left them alive"?
Dude...

You're much closer than you think...

but to clarify, the dead body wasn't in the clearing...

bUt remember that i took no apples nor did i leave any apples...but, no i didn't leave half apples


Is the corpse relevant? Most questions of logic have very simplistic answers, and are flooded with worthless detail to throw off the mind from the real point.

Dude...

Hahahaha. That post made my day.

:Dto be entirely honest...99% of the detail is irrelevant...

So far i've left two clues.......I'll tell you where to find one if you want....

you ate the apples and planted/did whatever with the seeds

its like if you take the wood from a pencil, you don't have a pencil anymore you have wood and graphite

When you say you left, do you mean left the woods or left the clearing? You pooped/discarded trash in the woods, then went home.

I've given you a clue...NOW let's see who'll get this first....:headbang:

You ate all the apples, pooped them all out, and then ate all the poop.

There are no apples. For that matter, there is no corpse, nor is there a clearing.

You loaded up on mushrooms and have been laying in the bathtub the entire time.

/riddle

..I'm still REALLY hung up about the plane on a treadmill thing...HOW could so many people say no?!?

Anywho, I want to test how you guys think....So here's a little story, and a little question, and I want to see how long it will take for some-one to correctly answer the question...


Some-time last week, I went for a walk through a forest. I walked for hours and hours. I stubbed my toe, and encountered a dead body within an hour. But I still kept on going. And then I hit a clearing...WOW. There was a MASSIVE apple tree right smack-dab in the middle with apples! I was famished.....

So time past as I rested....and then I left the clearing...BUT I took no apples and I left no apples in the clearing...how?!? (If I ate apples they'd be in my colon, so i'd still be taking them...)(And if I excreted them, then i'd have left them....yes...the result of taking a dump counts as leaving them)

I've given you a clue...NOW let's see who'll get this first....:headbang:

The apple tree was still in the middle of apples because the branches were laden with apples. "not leaving an apple in the clearing" means the apples are not on the ground, but on the branches which would make them not 'in the clearing' but still 'on the tree.'

simple. he blew up the tree.

:D

:rolleyes:if the tree is in the clearing, so too must the apples...

If you want a hint, read the VERY bottom of my first post

Riddles aren't really all that much fun. All they are is a form of intellectual elitism. You've either heard the riddle, or one very much like it, and you can therefore solve it or recall the solution quickly, or you have never heard it or one like it and you're left trying to find the loophole to the simple answer.

They're designed to make you feel stupid because of what you do or do not take for granted or what definition of which word you choose to assume.

Much like masturbation, it's fine, but no substitute for the real thing.

And yes, I have no fucking CLUE as to the solution, and I just don't care...much.

Riddles aren't really all that much fun. All they are is a form of intellectual elitism. You've either heard the riddle, or one very much like it, and you can therefore solve it or recall the solution quickly, or you have never heard it or one like it and you're left trying to find the loophole to the simple answer.


Additionally, a riddle should have one, and ONLY one clear and definitive solution, which is obviously correct, and all others obviously wrong. Additionally the riddle should be guessable from the statements given, not from some bizarre and otherwise unhinted at solution, like "aliens did it". As we have already seen, there are multiple possible ways to interpret the riddle, leading to multiple possible "solutions"

:rolleyes:if the tree is in the clearing, so too must the apples...

If you want a hint, read the VERY bottom of my first post


what, "NOW let's see who'll get this first" ...or the head smacking a brick wall?

really, if you blow the apples (via the tree they're in) into tiny bits, or burn them to charred ashes, they're technically no longer apples. (so i've been reading locke. sue me.) your question has more viable answers than whatever one you acknowledge. a good riddle has one and only one right answer.

edit: but i see i'm late in noting this.

Additionally, a riddle should have one, and ONLY one clear and definitive solution, which is obviously correct, and all others obviously wrong. Additionally the riddle should be guessable from the statements given, not from some bizarre and otherwise unhinted at solution, like "aliens did it". As we have already seen, there are multiple possible ways to interpret the riddle, leading to multiple possible "solutions"

Thanks, NA. I can always count on you to come in and clean up my verbal diarrhea. Once again, you've crystallized my thoughts eloquently.

There were no apples; they were simply an illusion so you didn't leave them theere (they were never there in the first place) and you couldn't take them anywhere because they were all in your mind.

Or, for a more serious answer, the apples were on the side of the tree that wasn't facing the clearing, so they weren't *in* the clearing. So you didn't do anything with them (in the clearing) because to do anything with them you had to leave the clearing.

It said the tree is in the middle of the clearing. The apples either leave, but not with him, or they're destroyed.

..I'm still REALLY hung up about the plane on a treadmill thing...HOW could so many people say no?!?

Anywho, I want to test how you guys think....So here's a little story, and a little question, and I want to see how long it will take for some-one to correctly answer the question...


Some-time last week, I went for a walk through a forest. I walked for hours and hours. I stubbed my toe, and encountered a dead body within an hour. But I still kept on going. And then I hit a clearing...WOW. There was a MASSIVE apple tree right smack-dab in the middle with apples! I was famished.....

So time past as I rested....and then I left the clearing...BUT I took no apples and I left no apples in the clearing...how?!? (If I ate apples they'd be in my colon, so i'd still be taking them...)(And if I excreted them, then i'd have left them....yes...the result of taking a dump counts as leaving them)

I've given you a clue...NOW let's see who'll get this first....:headbang:

Well when you say "I took no apples" do you mean from the clearing or from the forest? Because if you mean the forest you could simply have taken them out of the clearing and dropped them in the forest or stuffed them in the dead body.

Alternatively if you mean the clearing, then your friend took the apples and left you with none. Thus removing the apples from the clearing with out you specifically carrying them out.

Or maybe you rested in the clearing so long that all the apples withered and died thus ceasing to exist.

This is way too simple.

I ate the apples and Vagel is just a figment of my imagination.

:rolleyes:if the tree is in the clearing, so too must the apples...

If you want a hint, read the VERY bottom of my first post

actually no. because of what you wrote, you wrote "I left no apples in the clearing"

in order to leave an apple, you have to claim an apple to leave. by not claiming an apple in the first place, you technically didn't 'leave' an apple in the clearing.

now if you said "When I left, there were no apples in the clearing nor on the tree..." then that would say that the clearing and the tree was devoid of apples which were there before. ;)

the only other answer was that the apples were poisonous (hence the dead body) and that you 'threw' the apples out of the clearing. thus you didn't 'take an apple' because the apples left the clearing before you did.

:eek: For the first time in 15 years i've never heard that solution....

Every-other solution doesn't quite fit with the rules and description i've given...so no matter how much you complain about multiple answers, non of the ones you guys have offered make complete sense...

But throwing the apples away....i have no choice accept that...

so now there are two possible answers...do you guys want to keep trying for the other one? or do you want me to spill?

:eek: For the first time in 15 years i've never heard that solution....

Every-other solution doesn't quite fit with the rules and description i've given...so no matter how much you complain about multiple answers, non of the ones you guys have offered make complete sense...

But throwing the apples away....i have no choice accept that...

so now there are two possible answers...do you guys want to keep trying for the other one? or do you want me to spill?

wow... a new answer huh?

Another one could be that all the apples fell down and rolled out of the clearing. being that the clearing was on a steep hillside... :p

or that the owner of the apple tree came by and removed the apples... and since you didn't try to take an apple, he let you live (not like that ebil apple theif who's body you stumbled upon earlier...)

NO WAIT... I GOT IT. the Tree had no fruits on it.


APPLES is the name of a horse, the owner is the dead person! that's the answer... and Apples left the clearing before you did! :D

...if it's a clearing, there can't be a tree in it...hence the word "clearing"...

therefore, there is no clearing at all.

...if it's a clearing, there can't be a tree in it...hence the word "clearing"...

therefore, there is no clearing at all.

Similarly there is no spoon.

*Begins bending the imagined tree in a grotesque manner*

Well, you mentioned that you rested, but you did not say how long you rested. You also mention that you took no apples and left none in the clearing. One solution could be that other people took the apples from the tree while you rested. It could be a sort of Rip van Winkle situation. You rest, fall asleep, and wake up sometime later when all of the apples are gone. Therefore, you are not responsible for anything that happens to any of the apples in the tree.

It was a pine tree, so the apples all changed into pineapples.

..I'm still REALLY hung up about the plane on a treadmill thing...HOW could so many people say no?!?

Through flunking basic physics ;) ?
I already know several answers to your riddle, so participating would be cheating.

It was a pine tree, so the apples all changed into pineapples.

Fig tree then :p

He didn't "leave" any, because he's a nudist and doesn't believe in fig leaves.

Through flunking basic physics ;) ?
I already know several answers to your riddle, so participating would be cheating.

Can you though? It's bugging me.

I've thought it through and...

There's no indication that he ate the apples.

Yet, by stating he left no apples behind suggests he did something with the apples that means they were no longer in the clearing.

My initial theory was suggested by someone else, in that the apples were poisonous (cf. previous dead body), hence he rested for a while and then died, therefore leaving the clearing in a spiritual sense although his dead, decomposing body did contain all the apples so, again, in a sense they're still in the clearing even though he's left.

It doesn't work.

My only other conclusion is that he turned the apples into something else, hence taking not apples out of the clearing but cider for example - a very semantic clause of an answer but somewhat viable.

I love how hung up you guys are on the dead body....I'll reveale clue no. 2 you guys have missed but mentioned...

Clue #2

"I took no apples, and left no apples...."

Clue #1

look at the VERY BOTTOM of my first post

I love how hung up you guys are on the dead body....I'll reveale clue no. 2 you guys have missed but mentioned...

Clue #2

"I took no apples, and left no apples...."

Clue #1

look at the VERY BOTTOM of my first post

There is no answer and we're just banging our heads against a brick wall?

Hm. Note that the first post is edited, with the reason given being "Typo." Now, this isn't really odd in and of itself, however if you look at his most recent post, it is also edited, with the reason given being "here." Combined with the instruction to look at the very bottom of the post, could this possibly be relevant?

That is, is there something in the riddle that could feasibly be a typo of some other word that would change the meaning of the sentence, which would change the meaning of the post?

Or am I looking waaaay to far into this?

..I'm still REALLY hung up about the plane on a treadmill thing...HOW could so many people say no?!?

Anywho, I want to test how you guys think....So here's a little story, and a little question, and I want to see how long it will take for some-one to correctly answer the question...


Some-time last week, I went for a walk through a forest. I walked for hours and hours. I stubbed my toe, and encountered a dead body within an hour. But I still kept on going. And then I hit a clearing...WOW. There was a MASSIVE apple tree right smack-dab in the middle with apples! I was famished.....

So time past as I rested....and then I left the clearing...BUT I took no apples and I left no apples in the clearing...how?!? (If I ate apples they'd be in my colon, so i'd still be taking them...)(And if I excreted them, then i'd have left them....yes...the result of taking a dump counts as leaving them)

I've given you a clue...NOW let's see who'll get this first....:headbang:

Cut the tree down with the saw (sore - as in toe... typo?), and the tree falls outside of the clearing. You left no apples, and took no apples - the apples left on their own.


Edit: Other option - you died. Your body decomposed and/or was carried away by animals. Your rest was your death, and the apples had all fallen by the time you were all gone.

Edit: Other option - some other bugger et the apples while you were snoozing.

You could have cut the entire tree down and taken that. You wouldn't have been taking apples, you would have been taking an apple tree.. thereby leaving no apples while having taken none.

Possible answer 2: You gave the apples to someone else. Therefore, you gave the apples as opposed to taking them.

3: Your riddle specifically states "I took no apples and left no apples in the clearing."

Therefore, you could've just left the apples there.. leaving them in the tree, not in the clearing.

Wait, here's one: Because of the dead man earlier, you determined that the apples were, in fact, poisonous. You took no apples because doing so would kill you, and to warn others, you left the small note: "No apples." That way, no one would make the same mistake as the man prior.

Simple. When you encountered the dead body you performed a voodoo ceremony and raised it from the dead to be your zombie slave. It followed you into the clearing and you made it pick all the apples and carry them for you.

Or when you stubbed your toe it developed gangrene and attracted maggots when you passed the corpse. When you reached the clearing the maggots ate all the apples. Then you died.

Obviously something happened while you were resting, because the state of the appleness (sic) changed. The best solution is probably the easiest. Someone else came into said clearing and left with the apples.(the greedy bloke!)

..I'm still REALLY hung up about the plane on a treadmill thing...HOW could so many people say no?!?

Anywho, I want to test how you guys think....So here's a little story, and a little question, and I want to see how long it will take for some-one to correctly answer the question...


Some-time last week, I went for a walk through a forest. I walked for hours and hours. I stubbed my toe, and encountered a dead body within an hour. But I still kept on going. And then I hit a clearing...WOW. There was a MASSIVE apple tree right smack-dab in the middle with apples! I was famished.....

So time past as I rested....and then I left the clearing...BUT I took no apples and I left no apples in the clearing...how?!? (If I ate apples they'd be in my colon, so i'd still be taking them...)(And if I excreted them, then i'd have left them....yes...the result of taking a dump counts as leaving them)

I've given you a clue...NOW let's see who'll get this first....:headbang:


While you don't have a location for your nick, but most of posters are from Nothern Hemisphere of Earth. Apples are also predominantly in Northern Hemisphere. As you told that it happened last week, then i can tell you dude, it's quite a winter already,

so there could not been any reasonable apples around in a forest. Apple tree yes, but no apples. So your word 'apples' is related to something else. And since you don't use capitalization correctly (e.g., for word 'I'), I have no possibility to determine whether you meant Apples (as a name of something) or something other. I call unsolvable due to imperfect riddle-setting.

While you don't have a location for your nick, but most of posters are from Nothern Hemisphere of Earth. Apples are also predominantly in Northern Hemisphere. As you told that it happened last week, then i can tell you dude, it's quite a winter already,

so there could not been any reasonable apples around in a forest. Apple tree yes, but no apples. So your word 'apples' is related to something else. And since you don't use capitalization correctly (e.g., for word 'I'), I have no possibility to determine whether you meant Apples (as a name of something) or something other. I call unsolvable due to imperfect riddle-setting.
I was under the impression 'I' needed to be capitalized when used by itself, e.g. "I no longer know the truth". :confused:

I was under the impression 'I' needed to be capitalized when used by itself, e.g. "I no longer know the truth". :confused:

Wikipedia disagrees:
"In English, the nominative form of the singular first-person pronoun, "I", is capitalized, along with all its contractions (I'll, I'm, etc). "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalization

What if there were just two apples on the tree, then he took an apple and left an apple, not apples, again, it's just a semantic clause much like turning it into cider but I remember a similar riddle like this, where you assume the plural means many.

Did you call in an airstrike and have the tree taken out with a smart bomb?

or set up a cider factory in the clearing?

Maybe you threw the apples out of the clearing, or the apples rotted while you were sleeping.

The dead man you crossed was poisoned by a bad apple and died, so you didn't eat any.

You didn't take any apples with you so you couldn't leave any apples you don't have, so you left the clearing with nothing.
Quite a strange guy i might add wondering in a forest and passes a dead body and doesn't care. Nor does he try to contact any emergency services.

Wikipedia disagrees:
"In English, the nominative form of the singular first-person pronoun, "I", is capitalized, along with all its contractions (I'll, I'm, etc). "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalization

It is still valid "standard" English though? All through my education I was capitalized... :confused:

Sorry for hijack.

Since the words we use to define things are merely words of things and not things in themselves, there were no apples on the tree. Furthermore you have not proved that this scenario takes place in a true reality that has not been squandered by your brain's a priori knowledge of interpreting things that give you your sensations in order for them to make sense and allow for yourself to function. There is no apple and there is no tree.

You used the apples like golf balls and hit them out of the clearing into the forest.

I don't know about the toe stubbing and the dead body, being famished or resting, but the easiest way to get the apples out of the clearing without taking them is to throw them.

Or else the whole thing is one of those horrible puns that I am just not getting.

taking cues from rambhutan and jello biafra....

the dead body woke up as a zombie and chased you for hours through the forest. you got to the clearing, saw the apples, and used them as missles to fend off the zombie attack.

even though you were exhausted and famished you threw every single apple out of the clearing into the forest where the zombie lay in wait.

you then left from the other side of the clearing leaving no apple and taking no apple.

It is still valid "standard" English though? All through my education I was capitalized... :confused:

Sorry for hijack.

I is capitalized. So is I'd, which wasn't in the post this hijack originally refers to. So is I'm, I'll and I've. Anywhere that the letter i is used to refer to first person singular in any form, it is capitalized in standard English. Interestingly, she, he, it, we and they are NOT capitalized, unless they are the first word in a sentence. English is a very egocentric language.

The OP hasn't solved this thing yet?!?!

Gah. He better do so today before I stop caring.

he said there was a tree not there is a tree

Since the words we use to define things are merely words of things and not things in themselves, there were no apples on the tree. Furthermore you have not proved that this scenario takes place in a true reality that has not been squandered by your brain's a priori knowledge of interpreting things that give you your sensations in order for them to make sense and allow for yourself to function. There is no apple and there is no tree.

So you might not exist, then your words might not exist, so your meaning of your post might not exist. So what? It's metaphorical, but very philosophical. Out of curiousity what is a "true" reality? If this one is false how do we know any others are "true?".

typo in the original post:

"time past as I rested"

(as opposed to "time passed..." not that i see what difference that would make. i stick to my original answer. he dynamited the tree. the apples exploded into tiny bits and/or burned up, thereby ceasing to be apples. see locke's essay on human understanding, book 2, chapter 27 if the notion that apples, burned to ashes or exploded, are no longer apples confuses you.)

:cool:

Alright, since the OP has apparently abandoned ship, the answer is that there were two apples on the tree. By taking one and leaving one, he took no apples and left no apples.

I'm not a big fan of riddles that rely on grammatical quibbles, but eh. I've heard worse.

seriously?

i don't buy that that qualifies as a "question of logic" then. logic deals with propositions, whereas this is a matter of confused use of language. in logic if you say "i took no apples," 'apples' is read as 'apple[s]' - i.e. 'it is not the case that i took an apple' (and of course taking more than one apple implies that you did take "an" apple). if the riddle trades on unclear language, it isn't a logic puzzle...

e.g. on propositions - "snow is white." is a sentence, and more specifically, a statement. it makes a particular proposition, and the proposition is the same whether I use an english sentence, or french, or any other language, to express it. the sentence, however, is not the same across languages. since this riddle trades on an ambiguity about the proposition involved, it isn't logical.

I voted no because I overthought things. I figured it was an obvious question with an apparently obvious answer so there had to be some catch I wasn't smart enough to see. I also answered that at 6:00 a.m. my time, so my thought process wasn't the best.

Alright, since the OP has apparently abandoned ship, the answer is that there were two apples on the tree. By taking one and leaving one, he took no apples and left no apples.

I'm not a big fan of riddles that rely on grammatical quibbles, but eh. I've heard worse.
One apple is not no apples. That solution doesn't work.

I thought of the throwing solution when I read the riddle, and going through the thread it occured to me you could have fed the apples to animals who then left the clearing before you.

One apple is not no apples. That solution doesn't work.

I thought of the throwing solution when I read the riddle, and going through the thread it occured to me you could have fed the apples to animals who then left the clearing before you.

i agree with you.

he could have stopped and made applesauce. applesauce is not apples.

he could have gotten rid of them in any number of ways that would not involve taking them with or leaving them behind.

but he couldnt take ONE apple because one apple isnt "no apples"

I'm going with whoever killed the other guy, was in the clearing and killed you and then took you away from the clearing.



..I have feeling that I havent really read the riddle properly.

I'm going with whoever killed the other guy, was in the clearing and killed you and then took you away from the clearing.



..I have feeling that I havent really read the riddle properly.
That's a good solution. The apples may well have left with you, but you didn't take them. The killer took them (and you) and hid your body in the woods (like he did with the first guy).

That solution at least uses the extra piece of information.

Another equally valid response would be to do with the 'massive' stature of the tree. If the tree is sufficiently huge, the apples won't land in the clearing when they fall...

Who cares about apples? *distributes oranges to everyone in the thread*

You didn't specify, so perhaps the apples were buried under the clearing. Although this could qualify as in the clearing, with riddles accurate wording is key.

Who cares about apples? *distributes oranges to everyone in the thread*

thanks but i prefer mangoes. :p

...maybe he dug a hole to china, under the tree. or poured a vat of sulphuric acid over all the apples. that should do it, right?

There were two apples on the tree. You took one, you left one. So you took no apples and left no apples. Instead, you took an apple and left an apple.

Makes complete sense, if this wasn't the answer you wanted then their is 3 solutions, because this is surely a solution.

you were not walking alone ... ergo, your companion(s) ate the apples

So you might not exist, then your words might not exist, so your meaning of your post might not exist. So what? It's metaphorical, but very philosophical. Out of curiousity what is a "true" reality? If this one is false how do we know any others are "true?".

I might just be a figment of your imagination, there is no way for you to truly to know. I could just be a jumbled concept of all of your false experiences in your life. The 'meaning' of my post is just the construction of a concept that I have assigned language to.

There are essentially two arguments with the true reality: a) there is no reality, b) there is a 'real' reality we can never get to because of the way our brains interpret things (such as space/time and trascendental idealism). I suppose a third argument would be we are living in the real thing, but what of the fourth, fifth, and six dimensions? etc. The only thing you know is that you exist because you can think; the thing is there not might even be a 'you' seperated from your own experiences, so there is no real "mad hatter in jeans", just a jumble of experiences. Pick your poison.

NO APPLES!

I might just be a figment of your imagination, there is no way for you to truly to know. I could just be a jumbled concept of all of your false experiences in your life. The 'meaning' of my post is just the construction of a concept that I have assigned language to.

There are essentially two arguments with the true reality: a) there is no reality, b) there is a 'real' reality we can never get to because of the way our brains interpret things (such as space/time and trascendental idealism). I suppose a third argument would be we are living in the real thing, but what of the fourth, fifth, and six dimensions? etc. The only thing you know is that you exist because you can think; the thing is there not might even be a 'you' seperated from your own experiences, so there is no real "mad hatter in jeans", just a jumble of experiences. Pick your poison.

NO APPLES!

But by that logic it's self defeating, by saying "there is no reality" it's effectively saying nothing exists and neither do i, so there's no reason to believe in me.
you just don't like the idea of not knowing that's all.
What i said earlier, well if this reality doesn't exist, it doesn't matter, even if it can be proved it doesn't exist then there must be something out there that eventually does exist. For non-existance to be, existance must be there in the first place.

So you might not exist, then your words might not exist, so your meaning of your post might not exist. So what? It's metaphorical, but very philosophical. Out of curiousity what is a "true" reality? If this one is false how do we know any others are "true?".

But by that logic it's self defeating, by saying "there is no reality" it's effectively saying nothing exists and neither do i, so there's no reason to believe in me.
you just don't like the idea of not knowing that's all.
What i said earlier, well if this reality doesn't exist, it doesn't matter, even if it can be proved it doesn't exist then there must be something out there that eventually does exist. For non-existance to be, existance must be there in the first place.

It's not a matter of not knowing, it's a matter of realizing there is a possibility of there being NOTHING to inherently know since reality is a false one! What it comes down to with the OP is that the apples might not even exist if the first place even if he was to state otherwise; just shows the bad structure of the riddle, that is all.

And yes, you are correct in saying this might be a false reality and we are all plugged into a supercomputer.

It's not a matter of not knowing, it's a matter of realizing there is a possibility of there being NOTHING to inherently know since reality is a false one! What it comes down to with the OP is that the apples might not even exist if the first place even if he was to state otherwise; just shows the bad structure of the riddle, that is all.

And yes, you are correct in saying this might be a false reality and we are all plugged into a supercomputer.

Apples don't exist? *looks worryingly at cider*, it better had exist or someone is going to owe be alot of money.

But that's my point, yes this might all be false (see matrix), but that doesn't take away the "fakeness", even if it is fake it's all i know, so i call it real, even though "proper" reality might have more dimensions or whatever, what i call real is my "reality", i'd rather have a fake reality than be dead that's what i know.

Apples don't exist? *looks worryingly at cider*, it better had exist or someone is going to owe be alot of money.

But that's my point, yes this might all be false (see matrix), but that doesn't take away the "fakeness", even if it is fake it's all i know, so i call it real, even though "proper" reality might have more dimensions or whatever, what i call real is my "reality", i'd rather have a fake reality than be dead that's what i know.

I'm not saying one reality is better than the other, but it is useful for killing riddles. :D

I'm not saying one reality is better than the other, but it is useful for killing riddles. :D


I think this reality is better, i mean it's all fine and well being able to see things that aren't there, but the difficult thing to do is to see things that are there right in front of you.

I hate riddles, i mean what's the point? you're going to find out the answer eventually about a situation which doesn't involve you in anyway.
Another pet hate of mine is rubix cubes, can't stand them, i just re-arrange all the colours by ripping them off and sticking them on the right side.:D

ok ive got it. simple as pie, clue 2 said u took no apples an left none, an clue 1, was about the excreting them counts as leaving them, so its simple, you ate them and excreted them, an then cleaned up your excrement. or took it with you, either way... you walked out of there with feces not apples.

We were told to look at the bottom of his post, where we can see he edited it. Therefore we can assume that he approached the tree when there were apples on it, then he would edit his post to remove any reference to the apples. Yes. That's totally a logical explanation.

We were told to look at the bottom of his post, where we can see he edited it. Therefore we can assume that he approached the tree when there were apples on it, then he would edit his post to remove any reference to the apples. Yes. That's totally a logical explanation.

Or maybe he's laughing at us, wondering what bizzare and strange ways we'l try to prove a certain train of thought, then use those himself to dominate the world!

Simple. Apples is a person who was standing in a clearing.

This reminds me of a bad DM...gives you a crappy scenario then won't let you do anything that doesn't fit into his plan for it.

"Another equally valid response would be to do with the 'massive' stature of the tree. If the tree is sufficiently huge, the apples " will fall through its event horizon as the tree collapses into a black hole; the apples will either cease to exist, if it is correct that black holes destroy all information, or possibly will emerge in some other universe, but in any case not in the clearing.

actually, wouldn't they just take the entire life of the universe to reach the event horizon? i vaguely remember some weird physics to that effect...though they would probably be stretched/distorted beyond the point of being anything recognizably like an 'apple'...

Is the opening poster ever going to bother telling us which particular loophole he had in mind as "the" answer???

There are no apples. For that matter, there is no corpse, nor is there a clearing.

You loaded up on mushrooms and have been laying in the bathtub the entire time.

/riddle

Im with Pantera...and if this is not the explanation...why not?? :cool:

Is the opening poster ever going to bother telling us which particular loophole he had in mind as "the" answer???

No because the poster was testing how we think :rolleyes: :p

"Anywho, I want to test how you guys think...."

Our answers were the answer to the poster's question, there was no correct answer


:D

Was there a large wall around the tree? If the wall was long enough, the apples would fall inside it, and therefore they wouldn't be in the clearing, they'd be inside the wall. That's pretty flimsy (because the apples are still technically within the clearing) but I've heard worse.

..I'm still REALLY hung up about the plane on a treadmill thing...HOW could so many people say no?!?

Anywho, I want to test how you guys think....So here's a little story, and a little question, and I want to see how long it will take for some-one to correctly answer the question...


Some-time last week, I went for a walk through a forest. I walked for hours and hours. I stubbed my toe, and encountered a dead body within an hour. But I still kept on going. And then I hit a clearing...WOW. There was a MASSIVE apple tree right smack-dab in the middle with apples! I was famished.....

So time past as I rested....and then I left the clearing...BUT I took no apples and I left no apples in the clearing...how?!? (If I ate apples they'd be in my colon, so i'd still be taking them...)(And if I excreted them, then i'd have left them....yes...the result of taking a dump counts as leaving them)

I've given you a clue...NOW let's see who'll get this first....:headbang:

Well, I don't get the dead body at all, unless you are not human or some other anomaly.

You have specifically excluded that you ate apples in the clearing. Did you throw them out of the clearing entirely, all of them? But why would you do that if you were hungry?

So I'm going to say, the apple tree was too tall for you to reach the apples, so you cut the apple tree down, the top of the tree (with all the apples) came down outside the clearing, and you then left the clearing to eat apples.

How's that?

Some-time last week, I went for a walk through a forest. I walked for hours and hours. I stubbed my toe, and encountered a dead body within an hour.

This is a narrative, so you walked for "hours and hours" before stubbing your toe, and another hour before encountering the dead body. You may have been limping from the injured toe, making turning back impractical.

Now, what does one do when encountering a dead body in the forest? Unless you killed them yourself (*) you'd call the police.

But I still kept on going.

I infer you were so far into the forest, that it was quicker to continue to the other side, or to some place you knew of where you could get help.

And then I hit a clearing...WOW. There was a MASSIVE apple tree right smack-dab in the middle with apples! I was famished...

If you ate apples, you would be obliged as a good riddler to mention it here. I infer you did not, at least not while in the clearing.

Here are several options, none of which is excluded by your clues:

The clearing was a town or outpost. You used a public telephone or informed the police there. Then time passed as they arrived or made some record of your report of a dead body.
The clearing was only what you describe, an open space in the forest. You could climb the apple tree, unlike the other trees of the forest, and thereby got reception to use your mobile phone to call for help. You then rested, and ate sandwiches from your pack.
You had already reported the body, using your mobile phone, but had been asked to find a landmark which could be identified from the air. Having found this enormous apple tree, you phoned that in and waited for the helicopter so you could point towards the body. You rested while eating sandwiches from your pack.
You were not carrying a mobile phone, but having found an apple tree, you picked an iPhone and used that, then waited for the helipig as you smoked a huge spliff from your pack. Then you got paranoid aliens being able to see you a fled screaming into the forest.


So time past as I rested....and then I left the clearing...BUT I took no apples and I left no apples in the clearing...how?!? (If I ate apples they'd be in my colon, so i'd still be taking them...)(And if I excreted them, then i'd have left them....yes...the result of taking a dump counts as leaving them)

I've given you a clue...NOW let's see who'll get this first....:headbang:

* I would consider it extremely deceptive of you to say you "encountered a dead body" if you had killed that person yourself (say, the day before.) "Find" perhaps would leave open the possibility that you knew it was there, and were searching for it. "Encounter" is an to find something unexpected.

Perhaps you killed them by accident, by fooling around with the gun on which you stubbed your toe. All I'd say to that is: get out of Agatha Christie's grave before she rolls on you...

It being 16 hours since anyone posted to this thread, I think it is reasonable to assume we're done guessing.

Vagel should now post their "solution" so we can make fun of them for setting such a poor riddle.

Come on Vagel. Let's see how YOU think!

..I'm still REALLY hung up about the plane on a treadmill thing...HOW could so many people say no?!?
A Harrier could do it.
Some-time last week, I went for a walk through a forest. I walked for hours and hours. I stubbed my toe, and encountered a dead body within an hour. But I still kept on going. And then I hit a clearing...WOW. There was a MASSIVE apple tree right smack-dab in the middle with apples! I was famished.....

So time past as I rested....and then I left the clearing...BUT I took no apples and I left no apples in the clearing...how?!? (If I ate apples they'd be in my colon, so i'd still be taking them...)(And if I excreted them, then i'd have left them....yes...the result of taking a dump counts as leaving them)

I've given you a clue...NOW let's see who'll get this first....:headbang:
C4 explosive was used to destroy all apples in the clearing. There we go.

How can there be a massive tree in a clearing?

That kind of defeats the purpose of a clearing.

Give Us The Freggin Answer Already!!!!!!!

:eek: For the first time in 15 years i've never heard that solution....

Every-other solution doesn't quite fit with the rules and description i've given...so no matter how much you complain about multiple answers, non of the ones you guys have offered make complete sense...

But throwing the apples away....i have no choice accept that...

so now there are two possible answers...do you guys want to keep trying for the other one? or do you want me to spill?
The way I've always heard this riddle is that an apple isn't apples. You took an apple and left an apple.

Not very satisfying, I've always said.

The way I've always heard this riddle is that an apple isn't apples. You took an apple and left an apple.

Not very satisfying, I've always said.Yeah, rather a dud.

It is much easier, but also somewhat more satisfying, in what seems to be its original form:

There was a man who had no eyes,
He went abroad to view the skies;
He saw a tree with apples on it,
He took no apples off; yet left no apples on it.

Obviously a man "who had no eyes" but who also "views" and "sees" only makes sense if we are to accept a modified interpretive/grammatical rule: "no eyes" is not synonymous with "not any eyes," but rather indicates a lack of plurality. According to this rule, then, to take one apple is to take "no apples."

I say that this is, though easier (because it actually gives a hint), more satisfying only because the solution to a riddle should explain every conflict it offers.

In other words, what's with the dead body and stubbed toe? I could see how it would fit in to a more subtle clue that the walker has one eye, in which case it appears perhaps this is a degraded version not recalled in its entirety. But still, without the actual use of the phrase "no eyes" I don't know how it could be considered a hint. The riddle is in the wording.

Unless, of course, some different answer was intended. Do we have a final answer on that yet?

The way I've always heard this riddle is that an apple isn't apples. You took an apple and left an apple.

Not very satisfying, I've always said.

The riddler's answer is WRONG, I would say. If phrased as "I did not leave apples, nor did I take apples" it would be defensible, though still annoying.

As several posters said, ONE apple is not NO APPLES. "No apples" is a count of apples, two apples are not a different thing than one apple, simply two of that same thing.

If I leave an apple somewhere, and say "I left no apples there" ... that's a lie.

To call that "not very satisfying" is a huge understatement.

EDIT: AnarchyEl! Good to see you! :)

EDIT: AnarchyEl! Good to see you! :)I'm around. Just trying not to get dragged into long discussions for a while.

In some possible world, I am dropping acid, philosophizing with a beautiful woman, and playing with finger-paints.

In this world, I have work to do.

It is much easier, but also somewhat more satisfying, in what seems to be its original form:

There was a man who had no eyes,
He went abroad to view the skies;
He saw a tree with apples on it,
He took no apples off; yet left no apples on it.

Obviously a man "who had no eyes" but who also "views" and "sees" only makes sense if we are to accept a modified interpretive/grammatical rule: "no eyes" is not synonymous with "not any eyes," but rather indicates a lack of plurality. According to this rule, then, to take one apple is to take "no apples."

The nursery rhyme is satisfying as nonsense, as a mental teaser. I doubt it was supposed to teach that "one apple is no apples"

Eyes are different from apples, because there can only be a count of none, one or two eyes. Apples could exist in any number. Not knowing that number (apples on a tree) we would use "apples" without ruling out that there may only be one. Eyes are almost always of a known number for "a man" ie two.

EDIT: It was rarely me who dragged you into long discussions, I just enjoyed reading them. Work if you must :)

The nursery rhyme is satisfying as nonsense, as a mental teaser.Right. I doubt it was supposed to teach that "one apple is no apples"No, that's just the mechanism of the teaser. It's only fun because it has a rule: there's a way to make it sensible. The rule doesn't have to be a real one.

That's the difference between riddle and mystery. A mystery has an actual, sensible explanation in the real world. Riddles involve a "trick" of some sort.

EDIT: It was rarely me who dragged you into long discussions, I just enjoyed reading them. Work if you must :)I wasn't assigning blame. ;)

You didn't leave the apples nor did you take the apples. They either disappeared into another dimension. (Yes; it could happen in a story.) Or you took them out of the resting area and placed them somewhere else. If that were to happen, you wouldn't actually be leaving the apples, you would move them, then leave them.

I know it is a little confusing, but that is how I see it.