Is there a pattern present?

137 Views Asked by At

Jack is looking at Anne, however Anne is looking at George. Jack is married, George isn't, and Anne's status is unknown. provided this info alone determine whether:

a) A married person looks at a non married person.
b) No married person looks at a non married person.
c) There is no sufficient data for solution.

I went for C, but apparently it's A.... Is there some sort of a model here?

3

There are 3 best solutions below

3
On

It is A because if Jack is married, then Anne is unmarried. No contradiction there. Then, that means Anne, an unmarried person, is looking at George, an unmarried person. However, no rule states an unmarried person cannot look at an unmarried person, so there is still no contradiction.

It can't be B because you can't assume that Anne is married, because we are given Jack is married and we don't know Anne's for sure--thus the statement "No married person looks at a non married person" is insufficient.

Remember that it's the possibilities that decide this sort of logic. For example, B just blanket-states that for it to be true, Anne must be married. Which, is impossible, because that would make the latter half about George inconsistent. A has no such contradictions and is thus a viable assumption.

0
On

Let's start with option A: From the information we are given, that Jack is looking at Anne, it logically follows that Anne must be non-married. We then see that Anne is looking at George, who is non-married - this does not give us a contradiction because option A says nothing about who non-married people are looking at. Therefore, option A is true.

Just for sake of completeness, let's now look at option B: For now, assume that option B is true. So Jack is looking at Anne means that Anne must be married. But now married Anne is looking at non-married George and that gives us a contradiction, thus option B must be false.

0
On

We assume the middle is excluded: Either Anne is married or else she is unmarried. (She can't be neither.)

If Anne is married, then she is a married person looking at an unmarried person (George). If Anne is unmarried, then Jack is a married person looking at an unmarried person (Anne).