Brainteaser time!, A fun but confusing mind puzzle

There was a crew who set sail on a ship, call it Ship A. It was made of 500 planks of wood. One month later, one of the planks broke off and fell into the water. They had to find a new plank for the ship and fix it. The second month, another plank falls off, and they have to replace that one with a new plank. The third month, it happens again. This means that after 500 months, every plank has been replaced. Then, the ship lands on shore. This can be called Ship B.

Is Ship A identical to Ship B?

What if after the ship landed, somebody recovered all the pieces that had broken off, and then reassembled them? This is Ship C.

Is Ship C identical to Ship A?

All ships are the exact same.

The way I figure, since ship A was basicaly rebuilt, it could very well be Ship B, just renamed since it was redone so much.

Also, if the replace the planks with planks that have already fallen off the previous month, it would also be ship C.

No because I don't think I've seen 2 identical planks of wood in my life.

ship c would be identical to ship a

This post has been edited by rtsmarty on Sep 21 2008, 05:07 PM

Their design will be the same; though through environmental factors they'll be different physically.

And Ship A - Ship B is a blend. Rebuilt Ship A is less similar to Ship A than Ship B is to original Ship A.

This post has been edited by Hippoman on Sep 21 2008, 05:04 PM

ship C is similar to ship A in that it uses the same materials

ship B is similar to ship A in that it's built to look like ship A

Let's look at this from an Identical Twins point of view.

Ship C is just a more weathered, recovered, version of Ship A.

Ship B is totally different from Ship A, in that the planks are like snowflakes. Not any two of them are the same. So Ship B is NOT identical to Ship A.

Ship B = Rebuilt
Ship A = Ship C

Yes and yes?

not much wood would be left since the wood would not survive 41 years at sea, would it?

you're thinking too practically. this is a theoretical question

Metaphysics for the win

All are the same no matter what planks are used. It just a matter of renaming the ship.

The reference to three ships seems to rely on its physical constituency. The same object in question (ship) is referred to three times, so when repairs are taken into account, yes we are talking about the same ship.

I was expecting an epic brainteaser of mighty proportions.

Can I take the philosophers route and say you must look past the boards, to the essence of the ship?

This post has been edited by B.M. on Sep 21 2008, 08:25 PM

May I also join you and ask you to define what constitutes the ship's essence?

Do they operate the same? Then yes, they're all the same ship.

it depends on how you define a ship, or specifically how you define the comparison function of two ships.

So you want an increase of salary?
There's 365 days in the year, no more, no less.
You sleep 8 hours a day, which makes 122 days in a year.
243 days remain, from which 8 hours are free time. That makes another 122 days. 121 days left.
There's 52 Sundays in a year, which are all free days. 69 days left.
You don't work at Friday afternoons either, which makes 52 half-days. You also spend half an hour to a lunch break every day, which makes 8 days, just for eating.
What's left? 35 days. The work holidays take away 22 days, which makes 13 days left.
There are 12 national holidays in the Finnish Calendar. That leaves only one day.
That happens to be the first of May, the International Workers' Day.

You'd think after the first few months that the captain of the ship would take some precautionary measures to try and stop or at least slow down the unusually punctual liberation of the planks that are so important to his vessel!

I mean, come on!