Which day is today if the day before two days after the day before tomorrow is Saturday? This is a brain twister that may leave you thoroughly confused.
Joining a number of "day before", "days after" statements creates confusion simply because we are not at all habituated to encounter such long twisted sentences.
The day before two days after the day before tomorrow riddle
The day before two days after the day before tomorrow is Saturday. What day is Today?
Time to solve 5 minutes.
Hint: Don't go in circles moving round and round unable to find a way out. Think logically step by step. Break up the sentence.
Solution to the days after the day before tomorrow brain twister
Strategy: Apply Sentence Break up Technique
Making sense of the long sentence with a number of component sentences joined together is hard. Break up the puzzle sentence into three easy to understand sentences (bracketed):
Puzzle sentence: (The day before two days after) (the day before tomorrow) (is Saturday). What day is Today? (target is to find the weekday of Today).
Breaking up the long sentence and making sense of each individually:
Find the equivalent simpler statements:
(The day before two days after) "the day" => (One day after) "the day"
(the day before tomorrow) => "Today"
Join the simpler statements: Replace "the day" by "Today" (as the second sentence immediately follows the first)
"One day after Today" is Saturday.
Answer: Today is Friday.
Relationships between Sentence breakup, Problem breakdown and Abstraction techniques of Problem solving
Example of using the Sentence breakup technique on English sentences
- Sentence: "I will go shopping after I take my breakfast, but before I go to the doctor."
- Task: Order the three activities.
Use greater than ">" symbol to indicate the activity on the right occurs after the activity on the left.
This is the use of Abstraction technique. In maths, the greater than symbol ">" indicates a number greater than a second. Its essential property is ordering two numbers. In maths, ">" orders numbers. In its abstract essential property of "Ordering two things", it will be used now to order which action preceded which other.
Sentence breakup:
- "I will go shopping after I take my breakfast" => (breakfast > shopping)
- "I will go shopping before I go to the doctor" => (shopping > visit to the doctor)
Join the two together to get the three activities ordered in time sequence:
- (breakfast > shopping > visit to the doctor).
Simplified meaning: I will take breakfast, then I will go shopping and finally, I will visit my doctor.
Sentence breakup technique is a type of problem breakdown technique often used in solving complex problems. In its essential abstracted sense, sentence breakup technique is another form of problem breakdown technique.
Example of the Problem breakdown technique on Family Relationship riddles
At its lower, more specific level of hierarchy, the sentence breakup technique can only break up sentences. As the problem breakdown technique is more abstract and general in scope, it can apply to many problem areas including family relationship riddles.
Example: If (Tuhi's daughter) is (Tabu's daughter's mother), how is Tuhi related to Tabu?
Breakdown and inference:
- (Tabu's daughter's mother) => Tabu,
- (Tuhi's daughter) is Tabu => Tuhi is Tabu's mother.
Remember, abstraction and problem breakdown techniques would help you make sense of a variety of problems including real life problems.
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Good luck to your puzzle-solving!