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?
|
|
Submitted by Federico Kereki
|
|
Rating: 3.2143 (14 votes)
|
|
|
Solution:
|
(Hide)
|
|
From what the announcer said, there are three posibilities: Holland gold, Italy silver, Greece bronze; or Holland gold, Greece silver, Italy bronze; or Greece gold; Italy silver; Holland bronze.
If the italian reporter had known that Italy won bronze, he could have deduced the only possibility.
Similarly, if Holland had won bronze, the dutch reporter would have been able to deduce the standings. Thus, neither Italy nor Holland won bronze, and the standings were Holland gold, Italy silver, Greece bronze. |
