Riddle of the Week: Knights and Knaves, Part 1
Difficulty level: Easy
Michael Stillwell
By Jay Bennett
Ready for a riddle series? In the coming weeks, Popular Mechanics will present progressively harder "knights and knaves" puzzles. These logic puzzles take place on an island with two types of people: the knights, who always tell the truth, and the knaves, who always lie.
American mathematician and musician Raymond Smullyan named this type of puzzle in his 1978 book What Is the Name of This Book? You might remember a knights and knaves puzzle from the 1986 fantasy film, Labyrinth.
To start the series off, let's have a simple conversation with these knaves and these knights.
Problem
On the island of knights and knaves, you are approached by two people. The first one says to you, "we are both knaves."
What are they actually?
Hint
Is the first person a knight?
Solution
When you know if these two fellows are knights or knaves, or one of each, check back on Friday for the solution.
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