If Oliver is the highest-ranking tennis player, which one of the following must be true?

Jacob-R March 22, 2019

Hi @Govind-Ramagopal,

Here is how I would set up this game:

We have 6 people (KLMOPS) going in to one of two groups: G and T. The groups are ranked from highest to lowest with no ties.

T:
G:

Rules 1 and 2 : O plays T, L plays G

T: O
G: L

Rule 3: L is the best golf player. So we know nobody will come before her.

Rule 4: If M plays G, then P and S play G, with M-P-S.

Rule 5: If M plays T, then O-S-M plays tennis.

Notice that these two rules give us two different boards depending on the possibilities for M, given that M has to play either G or T.

Rule 6: If P plays tennis, then K-O-P plays tennis.

Given these rules, let’s reduce some possibilities for our game board.

Board 1: M plays G

T: O
G: L-M-P-S
(With just K left, either playing T or G)

Notice that rule 6 doesn’t apply for this game.

Board 2: M plays T

T: O-S-M
G: L

What about Rule 6? We get two possibilities: if P plays tennis, then we get

Board 2(a)
T: K-O-S/P-M/P
G: L

Or if P plays G, then

Board 2(b)
T: O-S-M
G: L-P
(With K as floater again.)

And that’s it! So we only have 3 board possibilities.

Now let’s look at this question. Additional rule that O is the highest ranking tennis player. Right away, we know we’re not in Board 2(a) land because K is higher than O. So what must be true?

A: Nope — O and M play different sports in Board 1 and Board 2(b) even with the additional rule.

B: Yes! We see that in our two board possibilities, P and L play the same sport. So this answer must be right!

I hope that helps. Please let us know if you have further questions.

Govind-Ramagopal March 22, 2019

thanks this is great!

May 30, 2020

this question was confusing and I am still unclear as to how that worked.

Karen-Norris July 17, 2021

That's how I initially set up this game, but then when I watched the set-up explanation, I threw out my initial set-up. I think I would have been better off, using the three template method.