From a standard pack of cards, I remove four cards, one of each suit, and one of each of he ranks Jack, Queen, King and Ace. I lay them out in a line face downwards. Now, you have been given the following facts:

(a) The Heart isn’t next to the Club.

(b) No card is next to its immediate senior in rank.

(c) The colors of the suits alternate.

(d) The king and Queen are facing opposite directions.

Identify the four cards and their correct order.

With a standard pack of Anglo-American cards, one should note that the facings of the KINGs and QUEENs of CLUBs, DIAMONDs and HEARTs face to our left, with the KING and QUEEN of SPADEs face right. With the given facts 
 
(a) The HEART isn’t next to the CLUB
(b) No card is next to its immediate senior in rank.
(c) The colors of the suits alternate.
(d) The KING and QUEEN are facing opposite directions.

there can be no solution with a standard pack of Anglo-American cards, unless one considers a DEUCE to be the immediate senior in rank to an ACE. With this qualification the order of the cards are:

QUEEN of CLUBS, ACE of DIAMONDS, KING of SPADES, JACK of HEARTS (or the reverse sequence of these cards).

It is not the only possible solution though. A standard deck may refer to the INTERNATIONAL STANDARD deck, also called the French deck. But for QUEEN of HEARTS, the facings of the monarchs of the French deck are the opposite to that of the Anglo-American deck. Thus we have to consider what is meant by immediate senior in rank.

If a DEUCE is the immediate senior in rank to an ACE, the order of the cards are:
QUEEN of CLUBS, ACE of DIAMONDS, KING of SPADES, JACK of HEARTS
or
QUEEN of HEARTS, ACE of SPADES, KING of DIAMONDS, JACK of CLUBS
or
QUEEN of HEARTS, ACE of SPADES, JACK of DIAMONDS, KING of CLUBS
(or the reverse sequence of the sequence).

If the rank of an ACE is immediately greater than a KING, the
order of the cards are:
QUEEN of HEARTS, ACE of SPADES, JACK of DIAMONDS, KING of CLUBS (or its reverse sequence).

Posted by Dej Mar on 2011-05-03 14:13:32