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The bridge and torch problem (also known as The Midnight Train [1] and Dangerous crossing [2]) is a logic puzzle that deals with four people, a bridge and a torch. It is in the category of river crossing puzzles , where a number of objects must move across a river, with some constraints.
Hashiwokakero (橋をかけろ Hashi o kakero; lit. "build bridges!") is a type of logic puzzle published by Nikoli. [1] It has also been published in English under the name Bridges or Chopsticks (based on a mistranslation: the hashi of the title, 橋, means bridge; hashi written with another character, 箸, means chopsticks).
In the missionaries and cannibals problem, three missionaries and three cannibals must cross a river using a boat which can carry at most two people, under the constraint that, for both banks, if there are missionaries present on the bank, they cannot be outnumbered by cannibals (if they were, the cannibals would eat the missionaries).
A river crossing puzzle is a type of puzzle in which the object is to carry items from one river bank to another, usually in the fewest trips. The difficulty of the puzzle may arise from restrictions on which or how many items can be transported at the same time, or which or how many items may be safely left together. [ 1 ]
The key to the solution is realizing that one can bring things back (emphasized above). This is often unclear from the wording of the story, but never forbidden. Knowing this will make the problem easy to solve even by small children. The focus of the puzzle is not just task scheduling, but creative thinking, similarly to the Nine dots puzzle.
The tale is also included in the video game Simon the Sorcerer (1993). In the video game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011), near a place called Purewater Run, there is a stone bridge near a waterfall. If it is the player's first time there, they will see three goats; upon looking under the bridge, they will find a dead troll.
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By way of specifying the logical task unambiguously, solutions involving either reaching an island or mainland bank other than via one of the bridges, or; accessing any bridge without crossing to its other end; are explicitly unacceptable. Euler proved that the problem has no solution.