From a standard pack of cards, I remove four cards, one of each suit, and one of each of he ranks Jack, Queen, King and Ace. I lay them out in a line face downwards. Now, you have been given the following facts:

(a) The Heart isn’t next to the Club.

(b) No card is next to its immediate senior in rank.

(c) The colors of the suits alternate.

(d) The king and Queen are facing opposite directions.

Identify the four cards and their correct order.

I looked at decks from 3 different American casinos, a standard Hoyle deck, and the Solitaire and FreeCell games included with Windows 2000. Consistently, the queens of diamonds and clubs and the king of spades face right, and the others face left. Therefore, Pleasance and Elite submitted the only correct answer.

Unless of course the orientation of the faces is not an international standard?

Most people would probably assume that the ranking of cards is J-Q-K-A, even though the problem doesn't state that, and depending on the game, A may not be ranked above K. However, it doesn't matter.

Treating the Ace as neither the immediate senior of the King, nor the immediate junior of the Jack, you can consider the additional permutation: Q-A-K-J (rule d). The only possible Q/K combination, due to rules (c) and (d) is Qd/Kh. Which implies either Jc/As or Js/Ac, but since the Kh is between the J and A, rule (a) would be violated.

Posted by Rick on 2003-02-05 13:04:07