Annoying little riddle

Mason-

Mason-

Mason-

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Basically my friend asked me this riddle and it is not a difficult riddle at all but we are still arguing about it.

Here it goes:

Farmer brown goes to town with X amount of melons, he sells half of his melons, and then sells half of a melon, he is left with one WHOLE melon.

How many melons did he take to town?

Now the answer on the website was 3, I do not dispute this answer, it is correct.
Sell half, 1.5 left
sell half 1 left
and you have 1 WHOLE melon left.

I am arguing that 4 is also correct
Sell half, 2 left
sell half of a melon, 1.5 left
and you have 1 WHOLE melon left...

you have half a melon but you still have 1 whole melon.

if the riddle was phrased ONLY left with a whole melon,

I would agree 4 is incorrect, but I can't see why 4 isn't right.

Please confirm I'm not wrong :P
 
It's ambiguous.

When writing out a cheque you don't put "one hundred pounds," you put "one hundred pounds only."

So it could be either.
 
vidda said:
It says he is left with one whole melon, not at least one whole melon.
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so when you say he is "left with one whole melon"

That means he has no clothes, no wallet, no soul, no wife, no children, no farm?

You can't assume left means left only with.
 
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Hamster said:
He could have also sold half of his melons by cutting each whole melon in half leaving him with no whole melons left.
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Nah but it does state he has 1 whole melon left.

That is at least a guarantee but having a half melon left over does not take away the fact he has ONE whole melon.
 
then based on your logic any number above 3 will work because you will always have 1 melon, just many more aswell.


your answer is technically correct but not the correct answer to the riddle.
 
Yea it could be either, although if the question was aimed at 5 year olds I'd suggest '4' should be marked incorrect.


Also as someone else said, you COULD argue '10234' is a correct answer, as he will have 1 WHOLE melon (as well as a load of other WHOLE melons)
 
utajoker said:
then based on your logic any number above 3 will work because you will always have 1 melon, just many more aswell.


your answer is technically correct but not the correct answer to the riddle.
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So how would 5 work?

Sell half of your melons. 2.5 melons left

Sell a half of a melon. 2 melons left,
you have 2 whole melons left?

it defines ONE whole melon.

...............

3 and 4 are the only correct solutions
 
The only answer is 3 "and then sells half of a melon" implies he just sells half of a melon to someone who is hungry for a melon half. Any other amount leaves him with too much melon....

Melon takes off on a treadmill
 
britboy4321 said:
No, actually BETWEEN 2.9999999 (recurring) and 5.

3 is a valid answer, and between is not exclusive. :)


If I say 'think of a number between 1 and 10' .... '1' is a non-valid response.
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2.9999(recurring) melons is not enough.
If half are sold that leave 1.49999(recurring)5 melons.
If another half a melon is then sold, that leaves 0.9999(recurring)5 melons left. That's not a whole melon.
 
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