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A king wants to go outside. He comes to the end of the fort. There are two doors there, and two buttons. These buttons do opposite things - if you push button 1, the king will come out of door 2 and vice versa. If you press both at once, you don't know through which door the king will come out (or whether he will be divided into two pieces).

What is the king's name?

This was asked by a stranger during a train ride. Though I couldn't ask him the answer. So I won't be able to provide hints.

A few things if they can help:

  1. That person didn't read Science after 5th grade. So, physics and chemistry related answers are not possible.
  2. It might be a reference to a product. But if it does, then it should be the one available in India.
  3. He did give emphasis on the button part. Therefore, the answer must satisfy that clue too.

Update:

So, I met this person again, and I asked for hint instead of giving any answer. That hint was:

It's a bad thing that you wouldn't wanna keep.

After getting this hint, I gave the answer provided by Keelhaul, which was correct.

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    $\begingroup$ Elvis. The king's name is Elvis. Now get off my lawn! $\endgroup$
    – Phylyp
    Apr 17, 2018 at 18:03

9 Answers 9

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It might be

Sir Booger

Indeed

If you press your left nostril while blowing your nose, the mucus will go out from the right nostril, and vice versa. However, if you press both your nostrils, well... we don't really know what will happen, do we? You can pop your ears or the "King" will come out forcibly from the left or right nostril, or both as several "pieces".

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    $\begingroup$ That cracked me up. Good one. $\endgroup$
    – A J
    Apr 17, 2018 at 14:21
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    $\begingroup$ Sir Booger, habitant of nostril $\endgroup$
    – Alex
    Apr 17, 2018 at 14:44
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    $\begingroup$ I can only imagine this is meant to be followed with "oh you don't know?...well let's find out!" bleurgh $\endgroup$
    – user41531
    Apr 17, 2018 at 15:06
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    $\begingroup$ This answer is why I love this website! $\endgroup$
    – Arnav Borborah
    Apr 17, 2018 at 21:43
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Maybe it's an allegory of

Double-slit experiment, made by Thomas Young
pushing the button open opposite door, so he come from the other door
pushing both open both doors, and we don't know if it will come from one random door, or both

as for the king name

maybe as this experiment show how light behave, I suppose it's Louis XIV, A.K.A. the Sun King

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We are talking about

A roll of King peppermint king peppermint

The buttons are

simply the sides of the rolls; push on the left side and your peppermint comes out on the right and vice versa.

Pushing both buttons

might break your peppermint due to the pressure exerted on it

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  • $\begingroup$ This thing is not available in India, actually. So, that's possibly not an answer. $\endgroup$
    – A J
    Apr 18, 2018 at 10:42
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Since we don't know until you can see him if he's dead or alive and where he will appear I say the king's name is

Schrodinger

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  • $\begingroup$ Thanks for the answer, but that person haven't read the science since 5th grade, I guess this won't be the answer. This Schrodinger equation comes later. $\endgroup$
    – A J
    Apr 18, 2018 at 10:44
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The kings name is...

whatever your name is. As asked in the question "If you press both at once....". The question asked "If you", hence it's your name.

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  • $\begingroup$ Oh. How obvious, but the king isn't pressing the buttons, you are. $\endgroup$
    – roberrrt-s
    Apr 17, 2018 at 18:13
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    $\begingroup$ I think the puzzle is referring to you as the king, speaking in third person. $\endgroup$
    – roldy
    Apr 17, 2018 at 18:20
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It might be

Locking

A king wants to go outside. He comes to the end of the fort.

This could be a boat approaching a lock in a channel

There are two doors there, and two buttons.

The button at door 1 of the lock will lock door 2 while opening door 1

These buttons do opposite things - if you push button 1, the king will come out of door 2 and vice versa.

you enter one door, but you exit the other

If you press both at once, you don't know through which door the king will come out (or whether he will be divided into two pieces).

opening both doors at once will cause a rush of water, and you will exit via the lower lock, which could be number door 1 or door 2. The rush of water may destroy the boat

What is the king's name?

Saint Elmo? The patron saint of sailors?

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This could be a variant of a similar riddle.

The king's name is

What

or indeed

Watt

because

the punctuation marks - specifically quote marks - in the final sentence of the question (or rather statement) are inaudible

and so

the 'questioner' is actually saying:
"Watt" is the king's name.

See

https://www.puzzles-world.com/2016/09/penny-has-5-children-what-is-name-of-5th.html

for the original riddle.

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  • $\begingroup$ Button part is actually missing here. $\endgroup$
    – A J
    Apr 18, 2018 at 10:47
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He

The story will not break any syntactic or semantic rules.

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Really stretching it here, but maybe some part of this might be partially on track and help someone else. Are you

Playing a computerised version of checkers, chess, or Chinese chess? In which the buttons are the left and right click buttons on the mouse, which control the game? The fort is some defensive layout you have created in normal chess, or the 3x3 square the King is constrained to in Chinese Chess, or the entire game board? If you press both buttons, the game will simply determine which was pressed 0.001s faster and do that. Splitting the king into two pieces kind of works for checkers, where kings (pieces that have reached the end) are denoted by stacking two regular pieces.

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