猜生日和猜牌
幾年前,有一道猜生日的邏輯推理題(見「A Math Problem From Singapore Goes Viral: When Is Cheryl’s Birthday?」,Kenneth Chang April 14, 2015),筆者翻出來放在這裡讓感興趣的朋友再回顧一下。
還有另外一道類似,不過是猜牌。
這道「猜牌」問題的英文是這樣表述的:
Mr. S, Mr. P and Mr. Q are extremely intelligent and have the sufficient reasoning ability. They are taking part in a reasoning interview. They all know the following sixteen cards in the drawer, these are, Heart A, Q, 4; Spade J, 8, 4, 2, 7, 3; Club K, Q, 5, 4, 6; Diamond A, 5.
Professor John selects one from those sixteen cards. He tells Mr. P the point of the card and Mr. Q the color. Then Professor John asks Mr. P and Mr. Q: can you conclude what the card is from your given point or color?
Next Mr. S hears the following conversation:
Mr. P: I do not know what the card is.
Mr. Q: I knew that you did not know.
Mr. P: I know the card at present.
Mr. Q: I know it too
After that Mr. S thinks for a while and concludes correctly what the card is.
Can you conclude what the card is?
筆者試著翻譯一下:
S先生,P先生和Q先生都極為聰明,有足夠的推理能力。他們正參與一個推理面試。他們都知道抽屜裡有16張撲克牌:
紅桃:A,Q,4;
黑桃:J,8,4,2,7,3;
草花:K,Q,5,4,6;
方片:A,5。
約翰教授從這16張牌中選出一張,他告訴P先生的是牌的點數,告訴Q先生的是牌的花色。然後,約翰教授問P先生和Q先生:現在根據我告訴你們的,你們能猜出我拿出的是什麼牌嗎?
這時S先生聽到如下的對話:
P先生:我不知道。
Q先生:我早知道你不知道。
P先生:那我現在知道了。
Q先生:那我也知道了。
想了一會兒,S先生也正確地猜到了約翰教授拿出的這張牌。
你能猜出來嗎?