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Are you a Moron App - Am I a Moron?

chimpboy74

chimpboy74

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 12, 2007
554
2
Scotland
Right
Sorry for a stupid thread but the above app has a question that goes like this:

A man is looking at a picture of a man on the wall and states:
Brothers and Sister I have none,
but this mans father is my fathers son
Who is the man in the picture?

This has been really bothering me as the choices for answers are:

his sister
his father
himself
his brother

loads of reviewers are complaining that the answer is in fact the viewers son but I make it that it is himself. the complaints say the app is stupid because none of the answers are correct.

Am I wrong for thinking it is him? Am I a moron?

Like I said sorry for a stupid question but if I am wrong can someone explain it to me? this has been really bugging me (I have nothing else going on in my life right now!!!)
 
The guy in the picture is not his father's son, which could be the viewer and would have to be if he has no brothers. He's saying the man in the picture's father is his father's son. So it is his son in the picture. In other words, if he has no brothers, it can be read as 'this man's father is me'.

That's what I get from it. And no reason we can't talk about something in an app in the app forum...
 
chimpboy74 said:
A man is looking at a picture of a man on the wall and states:
Brothers and Sister I have none,
but this mans father is my fathers son
Who is the man in the picture?
Click to expand...

Since the asker has no siblings, replace "my father's son" with "me." So it now reads: "but this man's father is me."
The man in the picture the asker's son.
 
swindmill said:
The guy in the picture is not his father's son, which could be the viewer and would have to be if he has no brothers. He's saying the man in the picture's father is his father's son. So it is his son in the picture. In other words, if he has no brothers, it can be read as 'this man's father is me'.

That's what I get from it. And no reason we can't talk about something in an app in the app forum...
Click to expand...

That's how I read it too.
 
You can also use logic:

A man is looking at a picture of a man on the wall and states:
Brothers and Sister I have none >>>can't be his brother (or sister)
but this mans father is my fathers son >>>>himself's father is his father and his father's son is himself
Who is the man in the picture? So, it's himself

That should help with your headache. :)
 
iphone.aggie said:
You can also use logic:

A man is looking at a picture of a man on the wall and states:
Brothers and Sister I have none >>>can't be his brother (or sister)
but this mans father is my fathers son >>>>himself's father is his father and his father's son is himself
Who is the man in the picture? So, it's himself

That should help with your headache. :)
Click to expand...
Nice explanation. :)

I had to use a family diagram to figure it out for sure.
 
swindmill said:
The guy in the picture is not his father's son, which could be the viewer and would have to be if he has no brothers. He's saying the man in the picture's father is his father's son. So it is his son in the picture. In other words, if he has no brothers, it can be read as 'this man's father is me'.

That's what I get from it. And no reason we can't talk about something in an app in the app forum...
Click to expand...

Your logic is messed up. If:

swindmill said:
the man in the picture's father is his father's son. So it is his son in the picture.
Click to expand...

Let's call the viewer of the picture "Bob". Substituting:

swindmill said:
the man in the picture's father is Bob's father's son. So it is his son in the picture.
Click to expand...

It can't be Bob's son.

Read it carefully:

chimpboy74 said:
A man is looking at a picture of a man on the wall and states:
Click to expand...

Let's say "Bob" is looking at a man's picture again.

chimpboy74 said:
Brothers and Sister I have none,
Click to expand...

So, "Bob" has no siblings. That eliminates the answers: sister and brother.

chimpboy74 said:
but this mans father is my fathers son
Click to expand...

It is poorly written, but they are trying to say the man in the picture has the same father as Bob. Doing reverse (where Bob = "this man" in the picture = "my" i.e. the viewer), it states:

Code: 
But Bob's father is Bob's father's son

That is impossible. That's implying the guy's dad is his brother. Well I guess it is possible, but freaky.

It should read:
Code: 
this man is my father's son

which makes no sense at all.
chimpboy74 said:
Who is the man in the picture?
Click to expand...

Since "Bob" has no siblings, and reading point 3 above, it is himself (i.e. Bob).
 
but this mans father is my fathers son
Click to expand...

This man = SON_A
This man's father = DAD_A
My father = DAD_B
My father's son = SON_B

The quote states that DAD_A = SON_B

Which makes SON_B father of SON_A.

So the answer is "his son", not one of those listed!
 
The part that really confuses me is this:

this mans father is my fathers son.

I know I am reading it wrong and I get how you get himself but the way it is written is real dodgy.

I also get how get that it is the viewers son because that's what I thought at first.
 
I think everyone confused by this question needs to go play "Paper Toss." This is obviously way too much to handle for you guys.
 
This is fun!

chimpboy74 said:
A man is looking at a picture of a man on the wall and states:
Brothers and Sister I have none,
but this mans father is my fathers son
Who is the man in the picture?
Click to expand...

The man has neither brothers nor sisters.

We have one identity explained to us: the man's father is the viewer because the viewer is the only son of his father's.

Hence the man in the picture, whose father is the viewer, is the viewer's son.

How did people arrive at "himself"???

"my fathers son" = "me" (if there are no brothers or sisters)

"this mans father", who is "my fathers son" is hence also "me".

And if a man has a father who is "me", the man is my son.

And if I'm the viewer, the man in the picture is my son.
 
wowipod said:
Your amazed.
Really.

I'm not it's just one of those questions that can be interpreted very differently by different people and each of them correct. It all depends on how you look at it.
Click to expand...

It's a riddle. It's meant to be "dodgy." If it was written simply and just told you the answer, then it wouldn't be a riddle. Anyway, didn't mean to offend you, but two people explained it, so it seemed, perhaps I should've said funny, that there were still questions about it.
 
ajbrehm said:
And if I'm the viewer, the man in the picture is my son.
Click to expand...
Nope.

but this mans father is my fathers son
Click to expand...
Separate into two statements.

Assume my name is John and I am looking at the picture.

First part --> "But this man's father"

So the person in the picture has a father. Let's call him George.

Second part --> "is my father's son"

The man in the picture is the son of a father.

Since it is my father, it must be George.

So George has a son.

Since I (John) do not have any sisters or brothers, it must be me.

Hope that helps.
 
iphone.aggie said:
It's a riddle. It's meant to be "dodgy." If it was written simply and just told you the answer, then it wouldn't be a riddle. Anyway, didn't mean to offend you, but two people explained it, so it seemed, perhaps I should've said funny, that there were still questions about it.
Click to expand...

A riddle is usually clear once you are told the answer, you know when you go 'oh how obvious, shoulda got that', with this particular one I felt there were still some uncertainty once you knew the answer. You didn't offend me so
don't worry. I am not one for riddles.
 
Another way to look at it:

A man is looking at a picture of a man on the wall and states:
So there's MAN_A, the speaker, looking at a picture of MAN_B (but maybe MAN_A and MAN_B are the same person, we don't know yet.)

Brothers and Sister I have none,
MAN_A doesn't have any siblings.

but this mans father is my fathers son
MAN_B's father is MAN_A's father's son.
Since MAN_A doesn't have any siblings, MAN_A's father's son has to be MAN_A.
I'm assuming the speaker is referring to the man in the picture when saying "this man" instead of referring to himself. If the speaker was referring to himself, he would be saying he was his own father (I'm assuming there's no Oedipus complex stuff going on).

Therefore, MAN_B's father is MAN_A

Who is the man in the picture?
The speaker's, MAN_A's, son.

QED
 
ajbrehm said:
The man has neither brothers nor sisters.

We have one identity explained to is: the man's father is the viewer because the viewer is the only son of his father's.

Hence the man in the picture, whose father is the viewer, is the viewer's son.

How did people arrive at "himself"???

"my fathers son" = "me" (if there are no brothers or sisters)

"this mans father", who is "my fathers son" is hence also "me".

And if a man has a father who is "me", the man is my son.

And if I'm the viewer, the man in the picture is my son.
Click to expand...

I agree

sushi said:
Nope.


Separate into two statements.

Assume my name is John and I am looking at the picture.

First part --> "But this man's father"

So the person in the picture has a father. Let's call him George.

Second part --> "is my father's son"

The man in the picture is the son of a father.

Since it is my father, it must be George.

So George has a son.

Since I (John) do not have any sisters or brothers, it must be me.

Hope that helps.
Click to expand...

Nowhere in the riddle does it state the the man in the picture IS the viewers Father, where are you getting that from?
 
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