Three reporters were discussing the hockey results. The TV reporter said "Either Brazil won gold, or Chile won silver, but not both." The radio reporter similarly started to say "Either Argentine won silver, or Chile won …", but a sudden noise cut him off.

The press reporter, who was lucky enough to hear the complete sentence, could reason out the final order of the three countries. What was it?

In all of these solutions, the press reporter is assumed to know that in fact Argentina, Brazil and Chile all won medals, which is not actually stated in the puzzle.

Both the TV and Radio announcers' statements could be satisfied by Brazil getting gold, Argentina getting silver, and, say, Peru getting bronze, regardless of the completion of the sentence. The only way the press reporter could have deduced the order of medals is to know that the medals were restricted to these three countries mentioned.

Posted by Charlie on 2003-10-08 09:28:31