Solution: How the Other Half Lives

Answer: SCHEMA, STOOL

Written by Justin Melvin, Jonah Ostroff

This is a Duck Konundrum-style puzzle, except both players have the same exact set of instructions. At first, this makes no sense: for example, how do you decide (in step 4) which player finished eating first, if both players are doing the same thing?

There are a few clues throughout the puzzle about what’s going on. Some particularly suspicious ones:

• The prize board displays a particular set of pictures, like fries and an elevator.
• Step 2 says to wave at the other player across the pond.
• Step 3b discusses what to do if a beverage is carbonated or not, but both players are drinking lemonade.
• Step 11 suggests that the players have written the same date, but in step 12 they disagree about when it actually is.
• Step 15 is unusually coy about what extremity you use to pass a football and the pronunciation of the letter Z.
• Step 34 asks very specific trivia questions, like where The Office takes place.

All of these are explained by a single twist: one of the players is American, and one of the players is British. This causes many of the instructions to be interpreted differently. Below is a description of the state changes.

Initial state. (Note that the players have different names for each item.)

Steps 3-4. The American player takes 28 seconds to eat 2 savory biscuits, 16 uncarbonated ounces of lemonade, and 5 sweet muffins. The British player takes 27 seconds to eat 5 savo(u)ry muffins, 20 carbonated ounces of lemonade, and 2 sweet biscuits. They spent 4 seconds drinking lemonade, so they claim the Aubergine for 1 point and move it to the left:

Step 5. The American player writes 05/07, meaning May 7th. The British player writes 07/09, meaning September 7th.

Steps 8-12. The American player interprets 07/09 as July 9th, so they move their proposal forward to Tuesday, May 9th. The British player interprets 05/07 as July 5th, so they move their proposal backwards to Tuesday, September 5th. They both write these as 05/09, but the American player arrives much earlier. They claim the Sweater for 5 points:

Step 14. Both players drive counterclockwise around the pond at the same speed, but the British player drives on the left. They win since this is the inside track.

Step 15. The American player has to hold their hand against their knee, while the British player has to hold their foot against their head. The American player probably wins.

Step 16. Angry bees are a bigger obstacle than drunk bees. The British player wins. The board now looks like this:

Steps 17-18. The British player claims the Chips for 2 points:

Steps 21-22. The American player places their token on Marvin Gardens, on the north side of the boat. The British player places their token on Mayfair, on the east side of the board.

Step 23. Note that on an American Bingo board, the number n is in column ⌈n/15⌉, while on a British bingo board it’s in column ⌈n/10⌉.

Steps 24-28. The called numbers are 27, 31, and 42. The American player moves 2, 3, and 3 spaces to Pacific Avenue, Pennsylvania Avenue, and Park Place (53 letters total). The British player moves 3, 4, and 5 spaces to Community Chest, The Angel Islington, and Pall Mall (46 letters total). The American claims the Elevator for 7 points:

Step 29. The American player swaps the Corn with the Wrench, while the British player swaps the Lift with the Torch:

Steps 32-34. The American player starts by going north, with answers SCRANTON, POPLAR, RAFF, PERIOD, BAILEY. The British player starts by going east, with answers SLOUGH, WILLOW, GNASHER, FULLSTOP, MOODY. Here are their paths:

Steps 35-36. The American player walks 2 blocks away, while the British player walks 4 blocks. The American claims the Corn for 2 points:

Step 37. Note that the American player thinks the ground floor is floor 1, while the British player thinks it’s floor 0.

Step 38. The American player climbs up 15 flights to what they call floor 16, while the British player climbs up 14 flights to what they call floor 14. They both get a coin.

Step 39. The American player descends to floor 6, while the British player descends to floor 4. They both get a coin.

Steps 40-41. The American player climbs up to step 8, while the British player climbs up to floor 5. The American player picks up a coin, but the British player doesn’t: it was taken by the American when they were on “floor 6” in the previous step. They text each other “8” and “5”, respectively.

Step 42. They both climb up to what they call floor 13 and pick up a coin.

Step 43-46. The American player spells “aluminum” with 8 letters, descending to floor 5. The British player spells “aluminium” with 9 letters, descending to floor 4. These are the same place, and there’s no coin here: the British player got it (the lucky coin) in step 39. They claim the Spanner for 1 point:

Step 47. The American player swaps the Sweater and Elevator. The British player swaps the Spanner and Aubergine:

Steps 49-50. The American takes 15120+800 pounds of dirt, while the British player takes 4320+1200 pounds of dirt.

Step 51. The American person thinks a ton is 2000 pounds, so they steal 5x2000 = 10000 pounds. The British person thinks a ton is 2240 pounds, so they steal 8*2240 = 17920 pounds.

Steps 52-53. This leaves the American player with 8000 pounds = 4 tons, and the British player with 13440 pounds = 6 tons. The British player takes the Torch for 4 points, then reverses the board:

Step 54. The American player takes the Eggplant for 5 points. The British player takes the Maize for 1 point:

Step 55. The American player claims the Flashlight for 4 points. The British player claims the Jumper for 5 points:

Step 56. Finally, each player indexes for their final answer:

The answers are STOOL and SCHEMA.

Author’s Notes

We tried to cram as many types of cultural differences into the puzzle as we could, but sadly “Caesar shift by one billion” didn’t make the cut.