Answer to September 6, 1999 Problem |
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adapted from a problem by Christopher McColl in the September 1999 issue of Games
In fact, ol' Mr. P, who has been at Handley as long as anyone can remember, has noticed the following tendencies among the student body:
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Answer to Problem:
Julius is the freshman. Sophie is the sophomore. Fred is the junior. Selena is the senior.
To solve this logic problem, try the process of
elimination. Assume Fred is the senior. Then it follows that Julius is a sophomore. Since sophomores lie unless they speak second, it follows that Sophie is not a freshman; therefore, she must be the junior. Since Sophie is the second one to speak and she is a junior, she must be telling the truth which means Selena is the senior and that contradicts our assumption that Fred is the senior. Similarly, you can reason that Sophie and Julius can not be seniors because they lead to contradictions. Assume Selena is the senior. Then Fred must be the junior. Since Fred's sentence starts with a 'J', and since he is the junior, he must be lying, so Julius is NOT a sophomore. Therefore, Julius is the freshman and Sophie must be the Sophomore. If Julius is the freshman, he must be lying, which fits since Sophie is not the freshman. Since Sophie is the sophomore, she is telling the truth because she speaks second, and this fits since it was our assumption -- Selena is a senior. |
1. Tom Marino | Winchester, VA |
2. Elizabeth Cotter | Oak Hill, VA |
3. Angie Cunsolo | Winchester, VA (Shenandoah University) |
4. David Powell | Winchester, VA |
5. Matt Schroeder | Williamsburg, VA (College of William & Mary) |
6. Kaveh Sadegzadeh | Williamsburg, VA (College of William & Mary) |
7. Si Schiavone | Winchester, VA |
8. Jia Ran | Rome, Italy (St. Stephens High School) |
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13. Richard Mocarski | Winchester, VA |