A Riddle rhyme.
 

:rolleyes:
Heres an old one for xilman.
Hint: there are two answers!

As I was going to St. Ives I met a man with seven wives,
Each wife had seven sacks, each sack had seven cats,
Each cat had seven kits: kits, cats, sacks and wives,
How many were going to St. Ives? :surprised
Mally :coffee:

I say there are 3 answers:
[spoiler]1 - just me (as seen in "Die Hard With a Vengence")[/spoiler]
[spoiler]2 - me and the man (who has the wives, but left them home)[/spoiler]
[spoiler]2753 - me and the man (who brought the 7 wives, 343 cats, and 2401 kits - sacks don't count)[/spoiler]

[QUOTE=mfgoode]:rolleyes:
Heres an old one for xilman.
Hint: there are two answers!

As I was going to St. Ives I met a man with seven wives,
Each wife had seven sacks, each sack had seven cats,
Each cat had seven kits: kits, cats, sacks and wives,
How many were going to St. Ives? :surprised
Mally :coffee:[/QUOTE]
Indeed an old one, so old I won't answer it here. I will, however, give a spoiler.

[spoiler]It depends on whether the man and his entourage is himself
going to somewhere called St Ives.[/spoiler]

I am forced to ask for clarification though: St Ives in Cornwall or St Ives in Cambridgeshire?


Paul

[spoiler]Insufficient Data. All we know is "atleast one"[/spoiler]:razz:

[QUOTE=xilman]Indeed an old one, so old I won't answer it here. I will, however, give a spoiler.

[spoiler]It depends on whether the man and his entourage is himself
going to somewhere called St Ives.[/spoiler]

I am forced to ask for clarification though: St Ives in Cornwall or St Ives in Cambridgeshire?


Paul[/QUOTE]
The rhyme refers to the name of a quaint old village in Cornwall England. the earliest traceable publication is 1730.
Mally

A riddle rhyme
 

Tom 11784:Quote:/tom11784
I say there are 3 answers::/ Unquote.

:smile: Correction Tom
1) just me and 2401 (man, 7 wives etc.) going to St,Ives.
2)Just me. The man with seven wives etc. going in opposite direction. :grin:
Mally :coffee:

No Mally, I think that tom11784 is correct.

The riddle says that the man had seven wives etc, but it does not say that he has them with him. It is also perfectly possible to argue that the word [B]had[/B], being the past participle of the verb to have, could refer to the fact that he no longer has seven wives etc. There is insufficient data to answer the question, and was in fact used in my math course as an example of such poorly worded puzzles.

A riddle rhyme.
 

[QUOTE=Numbers]No Mally, I think that tom11784 is correct.

The riddle says that the man had seven wives etc, but it does not say that he has them with him. It is also perfectly possible to argue that the word [B]had[/B], being the past participle of the verb to have, could refer to the fact that he no longer has seven wives etc. There is insufficient data to answer the question, and was in fact used in my math course as an example of such poorly worded puzzles.[/QUOTE]
:no: You have been too lazy to read the riddle which evidently you don't know by heart or its a purposely denied statement to provoke flaming.
For your benefit I reproduce it again below.

As I was going to St. Ives I met a man with seven wives,
Each wife had seven sacks, each sack had seven cats,
Each cat had seven kits: kits, cats, sacks and wives,
How many were going to St. Ives?

If you are still in school ask a good English teacher to explain the various tenses to you once again.
If you are a drop out you need to go back again to learn tense and conjunction.
If you have managed to pass out then maybe you are blessed with a poor memory!

But being New year's eve I will be polite to you and inform you that I have my ankle boots on to use them besides dancing for any occasion that demands it!!
All the same Happy New year to you and your loved ones.
Mally :coffee:

[QUOTE=mfgoode]:no: You have been too lazy to read the riddle which evidently you don't know by heart or its a purposely denied statement to provoke flaming.
For your benefit I reproduce it again below.

As I was going to St. Ives I met a man with seven wives,
Each wife had seven sacks, each sack had seven cats,
Each cat had seven kits: kits, cats, sacks and wives,
How many were going to St. Ives?

If you are still in school ask a good English teacher to explain the various tenses to you once again.
If you are a drop out you need to go back again to learn tense and conjunction.
If you have managed to pass out then maybe you are blessed with a poor memory!
[/QUOTE]
Ok, let's analyze that first line in detail.

"As I was going to St Ives" implies that at least one was going to St Ives.

"I met a man with seven wives" implies that at some point on the journey I met a man. No indication is given whether or not that man is going to St Ives. If he was going to the same St Ives as I am, we can reasonably conclude that one of us is travelling faster than the other --- either he is overtaking me or vice versa. If he is going to the other St Ives (which is why I asked for clarification) we are both going to St Ives, but we are not going to the same place. If he is not going to either St Ives, irrespective of the starting point of his journey, only one is going to St Ives (me) and that is the answer to the riddle.

In this phrase the word "with" is ambiguous. It may mean that he has an entourage in his presence. It may also mean that he has such a collection somewhere else. I am a man with three brothers, one of whom I met two days ago and accommodated him overnight. I am still a man with three brothers today, even though they are now all more than 100 miles away. Various friends joined me and my youngest brother two days ago for our annual Xmas - New Year barbecue. They met a man with three brothers.

[b]Now[/b] do you see why the riddle is ambiguous? My friends met a man with three brothers. They did not meet all of my brothers.

Paul

[QUOTE=mfgoode] kits, cats, sacks and wives,
How many were going to St. Ives?[/QUOTE]

Or perhaps the question asks you to avoid counting the men at all.

As pointed out, the problem is quite ambiguous.

[quote=mfgoode]You have been too lazy to read the riddle[/quote]
On exactly what evidence do you base this assumption?
[quote=mfgoode]which evidently you don't know by heart[/quote]
Why would I need to know it by heart when it is written in the first post in this thread?
[quote=mfgoode]or its a purposely denied statement to provoke flaming[/quote]
What, exactly, have I denied. Where is this [I]purposely denied statement[/I] I am supposed to have made?
[quote=mfgoode]being New year's eve I will be polite to you[/quote]
And you call suggestions that I might be a drop-out from school, suggesting that maybe I should go back to school to learn how to speak my own native tongue, or that maybe I am the one suffering from memory loss, being polite?
[quote=mfgoode]inform you that I have my ankle boots on to use them besides dancing for any occasion that demands it!![/quote]
And do you actually call that being polite. Because I do not.
Do you know what really makes me want to throw up. Bob Silverman was one of the greatest assets this forum had, and he is no longer here because he told you the truth about yourself. And instead of having learned something from that you seem hell bent on proving that he was right after all.
[quote=mfgoode]All the same Happy New year to you and your loved ones[/quote]
So you can stick your false wishes where the sun doesn't shine.