■
November 8, 2005
Q: "I was flipping through the Ninth Edition spoiler on Gatherer, and I came across Temporal Adept's flavor text. After about 20 minutes of critical thinking, all I had was a headache. Is that question actually solvable? Thanks!"
--Rick
Richmond, VA, USAA: From Devin Low, Magic R&D:
"If yesterday was two days ago tomorrow, will the day after tomorrow be today or yesterday?"
-Temporal Manipulation 101 final exam, Tolarian Academy"Thanks for the question Rick. There is an answer to this exam question. You're almost there. Clearly, if yesterday was two days ago tomorrow, then the inverse of yesterday was two days from now yesterday, leading to yesterdays both two days before and two days after the day before the day after tomorrow's yesterday. Therefore, the day after that day's tomorrow must be a yesterday, or else it could not be the day before the two days before the aforementioned day after tomorrow. Yet the day after that day must be a tomorrow as well, since the day before that has been a yesterday only so far as it is the day after the two days before that day. Thus we determine that the day in question is in fact yesterday and tomorrow, but contrapositively, clearly not today. Best of luck on the rest of the exam."
*1
