PARADOX OF THE COURT

A court should not find in favour of Lock Haven Law School. Winepol has a contract with the school which states that fees are payable only when he wins his first case. He has not yet won a case, so the fees are not payable. However, Professor Protagoras is right to think that the consequence of Winepol’s victory in this case would be that his fees become payable. Therefore, if the school were to launch a second case against Winepol – in the event that Winepol refused to pay the fees having won the first case – it would surely win it. However, though Protagoras has come up with a clever ruse to force Winepol to pay his fees, in the real world it might not work out in the school’s favour to proceed in this manner. Not least, it seems entirely possible that a judge would award costs to Winepol after his court victory, in which case the law school would almost certainly owe Winepol more than he owed it, since part of Winepol’s costs is precisely the amount of the fees he has now to pay to the school.

DOORS

You should ask either one of the guards what the other guard would tell you if you asked him which door leads to the pot of gold. Whatever he answers, the pot of gold will be behind the other door. If you ask the guard who always tells the truth, he will truthfully tell you what the liar will say, so you know it’s not that door. If you ask the guard who always lies, he will lie about what the truthful guard will tell you, so you know to choose the other door.

TRAINS

Eighty minutes is an hour and twenty minutes.

SWANS

There are three swans.

LIFT

The man is very short, and cannot reach higher than the lift button for the eighth floor, except if it is raining, when he is able to use his umbrella to hit the tenth floor button.