Boolos’ Tea GardenThree voices. Two words. One clever you.

The mathematician uses foo for yes and bar for no, or the other way round. You don’t know which. The physicist always uses the opposite meanings. The engineer picks either word at random, independently each time.

Everyone understands your question and answers honestly using their own convention. A question about what someone would say uses a fresh random choice when that person is the engineer. Ask one colleague at a time. The same person may answer more than once.

Use a direct question or ask “If I asked you X, would you say foo?” For either non-random colleague, that second form always gives foo when X is true. Try to discover why! The goal is to identify professions; you needn’t identify the word meanings.

Keyboard: Tab through controls; Enter or Space to activate. No timer. No typing special syntax.