Can you solve the death race riddle? - Alex Gendler

翻译人员: Yifei Liu 校对人员: Meng Ren

The night before the Death Race across the Wastelands is set to begin,

在荒地死亡竞速开始的前一天晚上，

your uncle, the great inventor Slate Kanoli,

你的叔叔，伟大的发明家 斯雷特 · 卡诺利

got kidnapped by the ruthless No-Side gang.

被残忍的无帮派人士绑架了。

The only way to get him back is to race his Coil Runner

唯一救回他的方法 就是驾驶他的螺旋跑车

against the gang yourself.

亲自和无帮派赛车。

Win and they’ll give back your uncle.

赢了，他们就会放了你叔叔。

Lose and you’ll forfeit the Coil Runner and all his other creations.

输了，你就会失去螺旋跑车 和他所有的发明。

As the grueling race gets underway,

艰难的竞速赛正在进行，

you find yourself falling further and further behind.

你发现自己正落后得越来越远。

Your only chance is to take a shortcut your uncle told you about––

你唯一的机会是走 叔叔曾告诉你的那条近道——

the Flux Ravine gambit.

熔岩谷。

Fortunately, the Coil Runner comes equipped with emergency turbo thrusters.

幸运的是，螺旋跑车 装备了紧急涡轮增压推进器。

Unfortunately, your uncle was a notorious tinkerer,

不幸的是，你叔叔的 修理水平是远近闻名的差，

and the system still had some kinks to work out.

车的系统仍有 一些小问题需要解决。

Just minor things like the ignition exploding,

仅仅一些小问题， 如火星塞爆炸，

the reactor leaking, or the oxygen levels depleting—

反应器泄漏，或者氧气用尽——

any of which would end your racing career immediately.

当中的任何一个都可以 立即结束你的赛车生涯。

Before his kidnapping,

在你叔叔被绑架之前，

Uncle Slate determined that each of these critical failures

他判断出这些严重故障中的任何一个

was the ultimate result of a chain reaction

都是推进器中

originating in the thrusters.

一个链式反应的最终结果。

He was also certain that while one factor could trigger two different effects,

他十分肯定 一个因素会引发两个不同的结果，

and two factors could each independently lead to the same effect,

并且两个因素可以 各自独立地引起同一个结果，

no effect is caused by two factors in conjunction.

没有一个结果 是由两个因素共同引起的。

However, Uncle Slate never got around to pinpointing

但是，斯雷特叔叔还没来得及找出

which thruster was responsible for which error.

哪个推进器会引起哪个问题 就被绑架了。

All you have are the notes from his test runs:

你只有他测试跑车时记下的笔记：

1. When thrusters B and C are on, the Fuel gauge glows.

1. 当开启推进器 B 和 C 时， 燃油量表会闪烁发光。

2. When thrusters A, B, and D are on,

2. 当开启推进器 A、B 和 D 时，

the Fuel gauge glows and the Helium tank rattles.

燃油量表闪烁发光 并且氦气瓶发出咔嗒声。

3. When thrusters C, D, and E are on,

3. 当开启推进器 C、D 和 E 时，

the Fuel gauge glows and the Gravitometer spins.

燃油量表闪烁发光 并且比重计旋转。

4. When thrusters A, D, and E are on,

4. 当开启推进器 A、D 和 E 时，

the Gravitometer spins and the Helium tank rattles.

比重计旋转 并且氦气瓶发出咔嗒声。

5. Shortly after the Helium tank rattles and the Gravitometer spins,

5. 在氦气瓶发出咔嗒声 并且比重计旋转不久之后，

the Ignition explodes and the Oxygen levels deplete.

火星塞爆炸并且氧气耗尽。

6. Shortly after the Fuel gauge glows and the Gravitometer spins,

6. 在燃油量表闪烁发光 并且比重计旋转不久之后，

the Reactor leaks.

反应器泄漏。

You need to use as many thrusters as possible

你需要用尽可能多的推进器

to give yourself the best chance at clearing the gap,

使自己尽量缩小差距，

without triggering any of the three catastrophic failures.

且不会引起三个 毁灭性故障中的任何一个。

Which thrusters should you activate?

你应该启动哪个推进器？

Answer in 3

答案揭晓倒计时：3，

Answer in 2

2 ，

Answer in 1

1 。

The most important thing to remember here

这里你需要记住的最重要的信息是，

is that even if we know that one thing causes another,

即使一件事会引发另外一件事，

the converse is not necessarily true.

反过来却不一定成立。

For example, this panic switch shuts off the coil runner’s engine.

比如，应急开关 可以熄灭螺旋跑车的引擎。

But the engine being off doesn’t necessarily mean

但是引擎熄灭了

the panic switch was engaged—

并不意味着用了应急开关——

the coil runner could be out of fuel, or damaged—

螺旋跑车可能没油了 或者坏了——

or turned off normally.

或者被正常关掉了。

We can, however, conclude that if the engine is running,

但是我们可以推断出 如果引擎还在运行，

the panic switch hasn’t been engaged.

应急开关就没有打开。

With that in mind, one way we can start is to work backwards

知道了这个，我们可以

from the three defects that could knock you out of the race.

从会导致挑战失败的 三个缺陷中反向推导。

So let’s look at Slate’s last two notes,

现在我们一起看看 斯雷特的最后两条笔记，

since they give direct information about those.

因为它们给出了 有关上述笔记的直接信息。

The Gravitometer spins in both cases, but the results are different.

在两个情况下比重计都会旋转， 但它们的结果不同。

That means the spinning Gravitometer

这意味着比重计旋转

can’t be the cause of any particular malfunction.

不会是任何具体故障的原因。

If it were, the same thing would happen each time.

如果它是， 那么每次都会发生同样的结果。

So we can conclude that a glowing Fuel gauge makes the reactor leak,

所以我们可以推断 闪烁发光的燃油量表使反应器泄漏，

while a rattling Helium tank makes the Ignition explode

咔嗒作响的氦气瓶使点火塞爆炸，

and depletes the Oxygen levels.

并且使氧气耗尽。

Once we know which two errors we need to avoid,

一旦我们知道了 哪两个故障需要避免，

we can make a table and use the logic of cause and effect

我们就可列一张表，用因果逻辑

to see which thrusters trigger them.

来判断哪一个启动器引起它们。

Since the Helium tank is fine during the first test run

因为氦气瓶在第一次测验

when thrusters B and C are active,

启动推进器 B 和 C 时正常，

we can assume neither makes it rattle.

我们可以推断这两个推进器 都不会使它发出咔嗒声。

And from the third run we know that D and E don’t either.

从第三次测验我们知道 推进器 D 和 E 也不会。

That leaves thruster A,

那就只剩下推进器 A 了，

which was indeed used in the second and fourth test runs

当第二和第四次测试启动它时，

where the Helium tank rattled.

氦气瓶会咔嗒作响。

Now what causes the glowing Fuel gauge?

那什么会引起燃油量表闪烁发光呢？

From the fourth test run we know it can’t be thrusters A, D, or E.

从第四次测试我们知道 不会是推进器 A、D 或 E 。

So is the culprit, B, C, or each of them separately?

那么 B 和 C 到底谁是罪魁祸首， 还是说它们都是 ？

The answer can be found in the second and third test runs:

从第二次和第三次的测试中 可以得到答案：

the fuel tank glowed in both, but B was activated in one,

燃油量表在两次测试中都闪烁发光， 但是 B 只在一次测试中被启动，

and C in the other.

而 C 在另一次被启动。

That means the B and C thrusters each independently make the Fuel tank glow.

这就说明 B 和 C 推进器 各自独立地使燃油量表闪烁发光。

It looks like the A, B, and C thrusters are off limits.

看来 A、B 和 C 推进器不能用。

Fortunately, the other two are just enough to clear the jump.

幸运的是，另两个推进器 足够完成这次跳跃。

You rocket into first place

你一跃成为第一名，

and the gang begrudgingly hands over your uncle.

无帮派人士不情愿地交出了你叔叔。

He thanks you profusely, and decides to celebrate your victory

他对你表示了由衷的感谢， 并且决定庆祝你的胜利，

with a cup of tea from his latest contraption...

奖励了你从他那最新的 奇特装置里倒出的一杯茶······