P, Q, R, and S ran for a contest.
A, B, C made the following statements regarding results.
1. A said either P or S will definitely win.
2. B said he is confident that P will not win.
3. C said he is confident that neither S nor R will win.
When the result came, it was found that only one of the above three people had made a correct statement.
Who has made the correct statement and who has won the contest?
(In reply to
some thoughts on the problem by K Sengupta)
Assume that P was the winner. Then, both A and C has given correct statement. This is a contradiction.
Assume that Q was the winner. Then both B and C has given correct statement. This is a contradiction.
Assume that S was the winner. Then, both A and B are correct in their statements. This is a contradiction.
Now, assume that R was the winner. Then, we observe that B has made a correct statement which means that P is not the winner. The inaccurate statement made by A further implies that S did not win the race. C's incorrect statement implies that either S or R won the race. Taking these together, we must have that R won the race.
Thus, summarizing: we have, B has made the correct statement and R won the race.
Edited on December 25, 2021, 11:07 pm