After the fencing competitions, the radio reporter commented “Denmark won silver, and/or Spain won gold.”
The TV reporter said “Denmark won bronze, and/or France won ...” but an ovation from the public drowned his comment.
The press reporter, showing again his good sense of hearing, managed to hear the whole sentence, and was able to deduce the final standings. What where they?
(In reply to
Problem Solution by K Sengupta)
On the basis of the radio reporter's comment, the following cases are feasible:
CASE 1 ....... .CASE 2 ....... CASE 3
GOLD: Spain ......... France .........Spain
SILVER: Denmark .... Denmark ......France
BRONZE: France ......... Spain ...........Denmark
=> If the TV reporter had said "gold", then both CASE 1 and CASE 2 are valid solutions, and therefore NO definite conclusion can be derived about the final standings.
=> If the TV reporter had said "bronze" then both CASE 1 and CASE 3 are valid solutions, so one would FAIL to derive any definite conclusion about the final standings.
=> If the missing word was "silver", then we observe that only CASE 3 generates a valid solution.
Consequently, the required final standing is:
GOLD : Spain
SILVER : France
BRONZE : Denmark
Detailed Puzzle Solution
