Here is a list of words:
(i) Each of the three logicians was told one letter of a certain word, so that each logician knew only one of the letters and so that no two logicians knew the same letter.
(ii) The logicians were then told their three letters could be arranged to spell one of the words in the list above.
(iii) When each logician was asked in turn, “Do you know which word the letters spell?,” the first logician answered, “Yes,” then the second logician answered, “Yes,” and then the third logician answered, “Yes”.
Which word did the letters spell?
(In reply to
re(2): different answer by fwaff)
The answer is HOE.
The first logician new the word so he had one of the letters H,R,P,D or V. Each of these letters only appears once in all of the words. This eliminates TOE as an option.
Since the second logician knows the word he has either an E,D,T or P. Each of these letters appears with only once of the previous letters in each of the remaining words. This eliminates OAR.
Finally the last logician knows the word so he must have an "O". It is the only letter that appears once in combination with the previous letters in the remaining words.
This eliminates PAD and VAT.
1st 2nd 3rd
H E O <- since the third logician knows the word.
P D A
V T A
D P A
R - -
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Posted by Tony
on 2003-01-22 05:29:56 |
re(3): different answer
