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The Four Mathematicians (Posted on 2003-04-12) Difficulty: 3 of 5
Four mathematicians have the following conversation:

A: I am insane.
B: I am pure.
C: I am applied.
D: I am sane.
A: C is pure.
B: D is insane.
C: B is applied.
D: C is sane.

You are also given that:

Pure mathematicians tell the truth about their beliefs.
Applied mathematicians lie about their beliefs.
Sane mathematicians beliefs are correct.
Insane mathematicians beliefs are incorrect.

Describe the four mathematicians.

See The Solution Submitted by Ravi Raja    
Rating: 3.0000 (6 votes)

Comments: ( Back to comment list | You must be logged in to post comments.)
Solution Got it now. | Comment 8 of 14 |
(In reply to my guess at this one by Jon)

My answer works perfectly until you look at what D says about himself. I D is applied sane he would say himself insane. so he must be pure. So he believes C is sane which is wrong so D is insane and just believes himself sane. B has to be either Applied insane or pure sane in order to say he is pure. C says B is applied which is a lie so he believes B is pure which would be wrong so B is applied. Froom before we now know that B is insane. From my first answer we know that A is Applied sane, there is no other answer there. This just agrees with th e rest of this answer so here it is.
Final answer is
A Applied sane
B Applied insane
C Applied insane
D Pure insane

  Posted by Jon on 2003-04-14 07:37:24

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