Questions tagged [logical-deduction]

A puzzle that requires formal logical deduction to arrive at the solution. This suggests more than merely reasoning through clues to find an answer (you might want [situation] for that).

A logic puzzle is one where a conclusion can be deduced solely using formal logical deduction without needing to guess. It often takes the form of a series of statements that you must use to find the solution to the question posed using logical inference. For example, the puzzle might ask you to figure out the order of five people standing in line from statements like "Jamie is not to Sarah's left."

Sometimes, the truth of the statements themselves is unknown and must be deduced. Use in addition for these.

You are in a room with two wizards. One of these wizards always tells the truth, while the other always lies. How do you figure out which does what by asking both of them just one question?

The answer is to ask them any question that has one irrefutably true answer and one irrefutably false answer, such as "Am I speaking to you right now?" The wizard that tells the truth will say "Yes," proving that he speaks the truth, and the lying wizard will say "No," showing that he is the liar.

Note that puzzles requiring you to reason through hints or clues, rather than apply formal logic rules to supplied facts, are not logical-deduction. You might want the tag for those.

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You have one question to tell whether the number I'm thinking of is 1, 2, or 3

This is an interesting puzzle which was passed to me by a friend some time ago. I do know the answer, but will refrain from self-answering on this to see where it goes. I'm thinking of a number: 1, 2, or 3. You may ask me one question, which I will…
user20
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Is a married person looking at an unmarried person?

I remember answering this one incorrectly and when the answer was explained to me I was annoyed with myself. Here is your chance, with the original word phrasing: Jack is looking at Anne, but Anne is looking at George. Jack is married, but George…
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How can I convince my colour blind friend that his two balls have different colours?

This question is inspired by this one, inspired by another Stack Exchange network question. How do I explain zero knowledge proof to my 7 year old cousin? My colour-blind friend has two balls, one red and one green. However, he is convinced that…
Kepotx
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Hungry lions and a goat

There are 53 lions in a cage and 1 goat. All the lions are very hungry and would want to eat the goat. But the problem here is that any lion who eats the goat can satisfy his hunger but he will himself become a goat and then other lions will eat…
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What is the result of the equation?

Considering from $a$ until $z$: $x = (x -a) \cdot (x -b) \cdot (x -c) \dots (x - z)$ What I want is the value of $x$ It´s something easy, but I could not find this here and I think it´s a nice puzzle.
Doguita
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So how did the date go?

It's Monday morning. Fernando just sat down at his desk for another hard day at work - programming stuff and answering telephone calls - "have you tried turning it off and on again?" As he is about to login onto his machine he notices a tiny bit of…
Zuiq Pazu
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Find the liar in the library

I've just taken a CS exam, which had the following question 6 persons entered a library the day a book got stolen. Each of them entered the library once and only once, and stayed there for some time, then left. If two persons were in the library at…
Gabriel Romon
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What color is the drummer's hair?

Three friends - a cricketer named White, a footballer named Black and a drummer named Redhead met in a cafeteria. "It is remarkable that one of us has white hair, another one has black hair and the third one has red hair, though no one's name gives…
Simbs
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The Devil's Shell Game

Inspired by the Skull Game in StoneStory RPG. You make a deal with the Devil. You are granted your deepest desire, in exchange, eventually, for your eternal soul. Every year, on your birthday, he arrives at midnight to play a game. A fiery glow…
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Color elimination puzzle

You have a 5x5 board with on each cell a light that can be red, green or blue. Next to each row and each column there is a button that when pressed makes all red lights in that row/column green, all green lights blue and all blue lights red. Is it…
cliq
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How long has the warden been the warden?

Summary: It is your first day in prison serving a literal life-sentence under the supervision of the warden. You are to be kept in solitary confinement with no additional information for the duration of your stay. However, there is one chance of…
Briguy37
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Nine Bottles of Wine, One Poisoned, Two Mice, Two Tests

Came across this puzzle and couldn't think of a solution: You are given nine bottles of wine out of which one is poisoned. Given two mice (that will die when taken a sip of poisoned wine), how can you find out which bottle is the poisoned one…
blackened
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Logic puzzle: Driving around the United States

For Super Bowl Sunday, here's a super-sized logic puzzle! This was a practice puzzle for a hunt I participated in a few years ago. There are ten delivery drivers driving around the United States of America. Here are their stories: The drivers…
J.T.
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How much red sand and how much blue sand?

This is a puzzle I remember arguing with my sister about when we were little... (Not quite as loud (or as public!) as the Monty Hall argument we had.) You have two large beakers of the same size. Beaker A is half filled with blue sand. Beaker B is…
Ali
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Can the assistants open the safes?

I'm working as a file manager. My company bought me three safes and assigned me three assistants. I'm busy most of the time and I can't manage the safes myself, so I need to let my assistants access them. I want to allow all three assistants to open…
iBug
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