This doesn't make sense because if you pick only ONE fruit from the 'apples & oranges' box you are not going to know whether it is just apples or just oranges because you have both in there. so you could pick either one.

But you know that all the boxes are labeled incorrectly so the box with 'apples & oranges' on it CAN'T contain apples AND oranges.

That doesn't help you decide which of the other two boxes contains both apples and oranges and which only one type of fruit

but it does because you know that each of the other two are also labeled incorrectly so if you pull out an orange from the "apple and orange" box, the orange label has to go on the box previously labled "apples"

At what point does the problem say I can't just look inside the box?

I win.

I THINK THAT THIS LOGIC PROBLEM MAKES SENSE.

If you know all three labels are wrong and you pick an Orange from the "Apples and Oranges" box, then you know that the "Apples and Oranges" box is actually the "Oranges" box.
With that said, you know that the "Apples" and "Oranges" boxes are labeled wrong. Since the "Apples" box cannot be labeled "Oranges" (because the "Oranges" only box is actually the "Apples and Oranges" box) it must itself be the "Apples and Oranges" box.
Finally, the "Oranges" box must be the "Apples" only box.

Ok, I'm on board. But:

(comment neverminded because when I wrote it out I disproved myself)

u could just feel around in all of the boxes and ick out of one of them cause when u feel around u can tell witch is in witch box-right?

GREAT PROBLEM!!!

that wasnt so hard when u think about it

Ben voiced my thoughts exactly. Hi, all, i'm a new member.

i do not get this problem
i dont c how u could know which is which.

As all the boxes are mislabled, then if box one is labeled apples, box two oranges, and box three both, and you select from box one but it is an orange, then box two cannot be oranges and box three cannot be both. Logic says that box one must be either oranges or both fruits. Box three labeled Both fruits cannot be both fruits, therefore it must be apples. Box two labeled oranges cannot be oranges therefore it must be both fruits, and box one has to be oranges.

the apple and orange box are inside the box labeled apples and oranges, dugh

If all was labeled incorrectly, then the box labeled "APPLES AND ORANGES" contains only Apples or Oranges. If you will get one fruit from the box labeled "APPLES AND ORANGES", then whatever is the fruit , that fruit is the only variety of fruit inside the box so you must change the label "APPLES AND ORANGES" to the name of the fruit you have gotten inside. Whether an Apple or an Orange, the new label of the box originally tagged as "APPLES AND ORANGES" will be the basis of the second box to be labeled. Just in case you have gotten an Apple from the box named "APPLES AND ORANGES", and changed the name of the box to “APPLES”, then the one originally labeled as “APPLES” should be changed into “ORANGES” since the label was suggesting a lie and must contain whatever is the opposite fruit. Then the one labeled “ORANGES” was the last box to be sort thus making it as the box that must have “APPLES AND ORANGES”.

thank uuuuu aaaaaaaallllllllllllllllllllll
but i hate that stuff but thank u any way

If we think hard its is really understandable

I dont get hsi at all. Why not just look insdie the box. I CANT FIGURE THIS OUT!!!

The problem doesn't make sense. please correct your Brain first.

I'm a 33 year old amn from England and these logic puzzles are great for winding your mates up at work and down the pub.
Am I too old to enjoy these puzzles, i dont think so.
Keep up the good work.

You people are all stupid if you don't get this one. It's one of the simplest logic puzzles I've ever read.

Actually it doesnt matter which you open, since they are all labeled wrongly.Contrary to the solution given: Suppose you opened "Oranges", obviously, you would find apples or apples and oranges in it. Had it been apples, simply swap the labels "Oranges" and "Apples". Since the boxes are all labeled wrongly, next swap the "Apples" and "Apples and Oranges" labels. You will end up with all 3 boxes being correctly labeled.

If ALL of the boxes are labeled incorrectly and you pick from the box labeled "Apples and Oranges", then, obviously, whatever fruit you pick must be the only type of fruit contained in that box. So, you would label the box either "Apples" or "Oranges" depending on what you drew. However, this does not solve the problem. Let's say you drew an apple from the box that was labeled as containing a mix of fruit. You would then correct the label to say "Apples". This leaves you with an incorrectly labeled "Apples" box and an incorrectly labeled "Oranges" box. You know that one of the boxes must contain oranges and the other must contain a mix, but the discovery of an apple from the box that was incorrectly labeled as mixed combined with the given that all of the labels are wrong does not eliminate the possibility of apples in the incorrectly labeled "Apples" box. The incorrectly labeled "Apples" box could contain either apples and oranges or solely oranges and still be mislabeled. Thus, you cannot know the correct labeling of all three boxes by picking one fruit from the incorrectly labeled "Apples and Oranges" box. To state that picking an apple from the incorrectly labeled "Apples and Oranges" box necessarily means that the incorrectly labeled "Apples" box must contain a mix of fruit is to assume that the incorrectly labeled "Apples" box contains any apples at all. This assumption cannot be made as it is not given in the facts of the problem.
You cannot solve the problem by picking a fruit from one of the other boxes either. Let's say you draw an apple from the incorrectly labeled "Oranges" box. You are already at an impass because the box could contain either apples and oranges or apples only.
Therefore, this problem cannot be solved the way it was written.

If you know that "the apples and oranges" contains apples, then you logically know that "oranges" cannot contain either soley apples or soley oranges, obviously. Therefore, the "orange" box must contain both apples and oranges, and the "apples" box must be orange.

You cannot pick from the "orange" box, because you cannot know that picking apples implies only apples, or apples and oranges. However, there is a 50/50 chance from either of the single fruit boxes. If you picked an orange from the "orange" box, you would know that the box contained a mix. Which would eliminate a mix for apples, which would mean "apples" would be oranges and "apples and oranges" would be apples.

Box labeled A & O


1. You pull out an A
change this label
to A

Box labeled O
2. This cannot be O and it is not
the A, must be the mix.

Box labeled A

3. This is not the mix, not
the A, must be the O

The question said that the boxes are labelled incorrectly. However, it didn't say that there were only three choices (apple, orange, both). For example, the box could have a puppy inside of it and STILL be incorrect, making the question unsolvable.

i id this at school with one of our teachers is was lile super easy!!

i can tell u something write A, O, O&A

CLUE..

Assumption 1: All boxes are labeled incorrectly.

Pick an Orange from Oranges. If an orange comes out, then this box has to be apples and oranges as implied by Assumption 1. Then you just switch the labels of other two boxes. Remember that each of the boxes is labeled incorrectly, so an Orange can never come out of the box labeled Oranges in the first place. If, however, an Apple comes out then I don't know what you will do.

What about dumping them all in one box and labelling that Apples and Oranges? And what law prevents us from looking inside? Logically...

i got it within 5 seconds.

the Label should read APPLES 'OR' ORANGES and not Apples AND Oranges, to support the shown solution. Otherwise, the given solution is not possible.

If i pick an orange from apple n orange box then i should name apple box as orange n not both

The given solution is not possible. If "apples and oranges" is incorrectly labeled, and you pick an orange from that box, then that box is oranges. The box incorrectly labeled oranges then is obviously not oranges, but it could be apples and oranges. This proves that the "apples and oranges" box would have to be "apples OR oranges"

So every box is labeled incorrectly...

therefore;
1) "Apples" should be labeled "Oranges" only ( can't be mixed )
2) "Oranges" should be labeled "Apples" only ( -//- -//- )
3) "Apples and Oranges" contains either one.

So you must choose only 1 fruit from one box to label them correctly, we know what the first 2 boxes contain, therefore we pick a fruit from the last box ( which can't contain both fruits ), so now we know all the right labels. :))

Given:

"All boxes (A, O, A & O) are labeled INCORRECTLY"

To determine which box is which, you must FIRST get a fruit from the box labeled "apples and oranges", let's say you've got an apple. Therefore, the box labeled "Apples & Oranges" are ALL APPLES, because of the fact that all boxes are labeled INCORRECTLY. It is NEVER POSSIBLE this box could have both apples and oranges. To illustrate:

LABEL - CONTENT

APPLES AND ORANGES Apples

THEREFORE:

APPLES Oranges

ORANGES Apples and Oranges


because, apples and oranges cannot go to the "APPLES" box for it will leave oranges to the "ORANGES' box which will break the condition, "ALL BOXES must be incorrectly labeled"

hence, this problem is VALID and does MAKES SENSE!!!!!

I think everybody in the first half is simplifyig the solution and not get it right. Only profeseur is right. I will try to explane if your choice is O from A&O box. (That is the only way to go) For the other 2 boxes you are left with 2 coices each;
O labeled - A or A&O
A lebeled - O or A&O.
But you have already chosen the lebeled A&O to be the true O (becouse you draw O), therefore for the box lebeled A with choices O or A&O, O choise is gone. So the lebeled A becomes A&O and last O becomes A.

i don no

i almost said this problem was flawed until i wrote it out. mr philosopher is 100% correct because whatever you draw out the box labeled as mixed, lets say apple, labeled apple box becomes orange automatically because orange isnt accounted for yet, but apple is with the mixed box, and all thats left is the labeled orange box. its confusing for sure, but the riddle is VALID!

That makes perfect sense, considering that the boxes are labeled incorrectly.

Thank you Mr Philosopher for stopping my head exploding!

it makes sense.

I pick one up from the apples and oranges and if it is an orange then i know that it was originally "Oranges". Then I would know that the apples box would have had to been "Apples and Oranges" because it cannot originally be "Apples" because it was labeled "Apples" to begin with and you said everything was incorrect. Therefore it must be Box 1 "Apples" is actually "Apples and Oranges". Box 2 is actually "Apples" and box 3 is actually "Oranges". =) I think im right!!!

I don't understand this either!
COULD SOMEONE PLEASE HELP MY UNDERSTAND!

If you grab an apple out of the "apple and orange" box and got an orange, you could reach in again and see what you get, and if you get another orange then it is most likely an orange box, but if you get an apple then it has to be the "apple and orange" box.

This is the most basic logic problem you'll ever see.

I can't believe SO MANY people could not figure it out, much less those who ARGUED with Jon C and needed Mr. Philosopher to repeat the answer.

Let me construct the scenario for you idiots who think this problem is not illogical.

Box 1 - Labeled - Apples and Oranges

Contains: Oranges only

Box 2 - Labeled - Oranges

Contains: Apples only

Box 3 - Labeled - Apples

Contains: Apples and Oranges

I am going to pick one fruit out of one box. I pick an apple from Box 2 which is labeled "Oranges". So I change Box 2's label to "Apples" instead of Oranges. Now I know for a fact that Box 3 which is labeled "Apples" is incorrect because I found the box with the apples already (Box 2). Now how the hell do I know if Box 3 is going to be exactly Oranges or both Apples and Oranges? I don't! How the hell did I know if Box 2 which I labeled "Apples" instead of "Oranges" wasn't both Apple's and Oranges? The instructions specified that I could only draw one fruit from one box. Therefore, I can never tell if one box has both apples and oranges! Whoever made this question is mentally retarded if they couldn't figure out that there was no solution! And for the 500 people that write comments here and cannot spell simple words: Why the hell are you posting comments when you haven't even passed grade school? No-one cares about your opinion if you are retarded and can't figure out a solution. Even if I drew an apple from the box that was labeled "Apples and Oranges", I could only find that one correct box- the box labeled "Apples and Oranges" previously is now correctly "Apples" but the next box could be either "Oranges" or "Apples and Oranges" and I would never know because I am only allowed to draw one fruit from one box. Get some mental help if you thought this problem made sense.

Your 'proof' demonstrates that choosing a fruit from either of the homogeneously labelled boxes is not the correct solution. Congratulations. Well done.

If you pick up a fruit from the APPLES AND ORRANGES box, and you get an apple, then how do you know which one of the other ones are supposed to be APPLES or ORANGES?

The whole point of this logic problem was to find which box you need to choose from in order to label all of them correctly.

If you are having a problem with solving the puzzle by selecting from the 'APPLES' or 'ORANGES' boxes, it's because you are choosing from the wrong box.

Box 1: Mislabeled as 'APPLES'

Box 2: Mislabeled as 'ORANGES'

Box 3: Mislabeled as 'APPLES AND ORANGES'

It is necessary to choose from the 'APPLES AND ORANGES' box (box 3), because this is the only way to solve the problem. The LOGIC does not work if you select from a wrong box first.

If you select an apple from the 'APPLES AND ORANGES' box (box 3), then because you know the box is MISLABELED and cannot contain both apples and oranges, that box MUST be a box of apples.

This leaves you with two remaining choices. The box MISLABELED 'APPLES'(box 1) and the box MISLABELED 'ORANGES' (box 2).

Since we haven't found the oranges yet, and the box that says 'ORANGES' (box 2) is MISLABELED, then the only other box that's left is box l, which has to contain the oranges.

This leaves us with 'APPLES AND ORANGES' in the only remaining box (box 2) that is MISLABELED as 'ORANGES'