Skip to main content

The Victim



Mike is the victim.

If Mike's sister and Jack's sister are the same person, then (a) reads "Lily argued exactly once with (Mike or Jack)" and (b) reads "Lily argued twice with (the same Mike or Jack)". These two statements contradict each other. Therefore Mike's sister must be different from Jack's sister.
If this is the case then there are two possibilities:

1) Jack and Carol are brother and sister. Mike and Lily are brother and sister. Jack is married to Lily and Mike is married to Carol. If this is the case, then (a) reads "Carol argued once with Mike" and (b) reads "Lily argued twice with herself", leaving Jack dead. Since Lily did not likely argue with herself, this is not the solution.

2) Jack and Lily are brother and sister. Mike and Carol are brother and sister. Jack is married to Carol and Lily is married to Mike. If this is the case, then (a) reads "Lily argued once with Jack" and (b) reads "Carol argued twice with Lily", leaving Mike dead. Since there are no contradictions, this is the solution.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Backwards Clock

  Suppose that a second pair of hands turns together with the wrong pair of hands, but then in the correct way. When the wrong pair is in the same position as the correct pair, this means that the time is shown in the right way. First look at the hour-hands that are at the twelve. One turns with the correct speed, the other with a speed that is twelve times as small. These two hands are in the same position again when the 'slow' hand has progressed x minutes. The fast hand then has progressed 60+x minutes. For the time x that passed, then holds: (60+x)/12 = x. This means that x = 5 5/11 minutes. For the minutes-hands that start at six holds the same. The confused clock therefore shows the correct time again at 5 5/11 minutes past 7. 

What is the 10 Digit Number?

  6210001000 There are 6 zeros, 2 ones, 1 two, 0 threes, 0 fours, 0 fives, 1 six, 0 sevens, 0 eights, and 0 nines.

Stamps

  B says: "Suppose I have red-red. A would have said on her second turn: 'I see that B has red-red. If I also have red-red, then all four reds would be used, and C would have realized that she had green-green. But C didn't, so I don't have red-red. Suppose I have green-green. In that case, C would have realized that if she had red-red, I would have seen four reds and I would have answered that I had green-green on my first turn. On the other hand, if she also has green-green [we assume that A can see C; this line is only for completeness], then B would have seen four greens and she would have answered that she had two reds. So C would have realized that, if I have green-green and B has red-red, and if neither of us answered on our first turn, then she must have green-red. "'But she didn't. So I can't have green-green either, and if I can't have green-green or red-red, then I must have green-red.' ...