Run that Race

If you are in a race and you pass the person in second place, what place will you be in?

A Cretan Cretin

Epimenides the Cretan famously announced, "All Cretans are liars." Is this true?

What am I?

I am what poor people have and what rich people need. I am what blind people see and what deaf people hear. I am what brave people fear and what kind people hate. And though hateful people love me, only the biggest fools really know me.

What am I?

Beat the Computer

Bob claims he has invented a perfect chess computer that will win every game it plays. You play a few games agianst the computer, and it beats you every time. Bob takes his chess computer to the world chess championships, where it defeats every challenger. After this resounding victory, Bob proclaims that his computer is indeed perfect and will win every game it ever plays.

Do you agree with Bob?

A Doorway to Paradise

Imagine that when you die, you will find yourself in a room with two doors, one leading to eternal paradise and teh other leading to eternal damnation. You can choose which door to walk through, but the trouble is that the doors are unmarked.

Each door has a guard, and you can ask each guard one "yes" or "no" question before you make your fateful choice. One of the two guards will always answer truthfully and the other other guard will always lie. Unfortunately, there's no way of knowing which guard is which.

What question should you ask on of the guards to ensure that you wind up in paradise?

Light Bulbs

Imagine two rooms, one with three switches and the other with three light bulbs. Each switch controls one of the light bulbs. However, because the light bulbs are in a different room, you can't see immediately which switch contronls which light bulb.

Your task is to figure out which switch controls which light bulb. you can spend as much time as you like in the room with the light switches, but eventually you must go into the room with the light bulbs. Once you enter the room with the light bulbs, you can't return to the room with the light switches. What's more, after entering the room with the light bulbs, you have only thirty seconds to figure out which switch controls which bulb.

How do you do it?

Nothing

Consider the following deduction: "Bread crumbs are better than nothing. Nothin is better than cheesecake. Therefore, bread crumbs are better than cheescake?

What is wrong with this deduction?