After the weight lifting event, the announcer said “Either Holland was better than Italy, or Greece won gold.”
An Italian reporter heard that, and commented that even knowing his own country’s final place, he wasn’t able to deduce the other places.
Curiously, a Dutch reporter who knew Holland’s final place, and who hadn’t heard the other reporter, made exactly the same remark.
Which were the final places?
(In reply to
Puzzle Solution by K Sengupta)
Announcer's statement provides the three possibilities:
Gold | Holland ...... Holland ....... Greece |
Silver | Italy ............ Greece ......... Italy | .....,(A)
Bronze | Greece ........Italy..............., Holland |
From the foregoing, the Italian reporter couldn't deduce the correct standings, even when knowing his country's standings. From (A), we observe that this is possible only when Italy did NOT win the bronze. Thus, the possibilities are now:
Gold | Holland ......Greece |
Silver | Italy ........... Italy | ......(B)
Bronze | Greece .......Holland |
Again, we observe that following the announcer's statement, the Dutch reporter failed to deduce the correct standings, even after knowing his country's position. From (A), we observe that this is only possible if Holland did NOT win the bronze.
Consequently, from (B), the only possible standing is:
GOLD => Holland
SILVER => Italy
BRONZE => Greece
Edited on January 15, 2022, 3:01 am
Explanation for the Puzzle Solution
