Before the last race, I heard the runners from Nepal, Oman and Pakistan make predictions about the final standings:

"I hope the Nepalese gets bronze, for then I'm certain to get silver."

"The Omani could get gold, but in that case I'd get silver."

"The gold medal will go to the Pakistani or to me."

I didn't know which runner said what, but as I learned later, they were all right. Furthermore, knowing which country won the race allowed me to calculate the final standings, which were... ?

If you read carefully it says "I didn't know which runner said what, but as I learned later, they were all right", meaning that any predictions made would have to be correct. No?  With that in mind, there's one very important prediction made, and that's in the first comment: "I hope the Nepalese gets bronze, for then I'm certain to get silver."  So if this comment is is taken as being a correct prediction, then Nepal would have to have taken Bronze, right?

Ok, so it's fairly clear that:

Prediction 1 has to be made by Oman or Pakistan.

Prediction 2 has to be made by Pakistan or Nepal.

Prediction 3 by Oman or Nepal.

So if you just assume that P2 is made by Pakistan, then P1 would have to have been made by Oman, and P3 by Nepal.  So...

P1: Oman says "I hope the Nepalese gets bronze, for then I'm certain to get silver" which actually happens, giving Oman the Silver medal.

P2: Pakistan says "The Omani could get gold, but in that case I'd get silver", which is true, Omani could have, but they didn't.

P3: Nepal says "The gold medal will go to the Pakistani or to me", but we know Nepal gets Bronze, giving Pakistan the Gold.

G = Pakistan, S = Oman, B = Nepal

 

  

 

Posted by Higashi on 2004-08-10 06:22:52