Each of the following could be the lowest-ranking tennis player EXCEPT:

shunhe March 27, 2020

Hi @Maria-Marin,

Thanks for the question! Note that what you said about K playing tennis and being first among her, O, and P actually only applies if P plays tennis. According to the last rule, P playing tennis is the sufficient condition necessary to trigger that rule. However, if P doesn’t play tennis, that rule isn’t necessarily triggered. So let’s say that K plays tennis, but P does not play tennis. Let’s also say that O plays tennis.

Right now, we can say that O ranks higher than K, and put K at the bottom of the rankings. Now we should make sure that this won’t contradict any of the other rules when we fill in the other players, and here’s one way of doing so:

(Rankings go from highest to lowest)

Golf: L M P S

Tennis: O K

And we see that this doesn’t violate any of the rules of the game, and has K as the lowest-ranking tennis player. Thus, (B) cannot be the correct answer.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.

Maddie June 16, 2020

how are we allowed to make the jump that O could be better than K? If it goes Kt>Ot>Pt, even if there is no Pt why would that change the order of Kt and Ot?

natasha July 29, 2020

I am REALLY Confused - Rule says Olivia ranks lower than K (last rule in group) isn't that saying Kim is higher ranking player (at least higher than Olivia)??? what am I missing? I am with Madeleine - not understanding how we are making the jump that O is better

Ashley123 September 7, 2021

I also really don't get this one. Why can we just switch around K and O? I'm still not seeing how K could be the last one? Why can we say that O ranks higher than K in the above scenario? Wouldn't O be last because P is in G, not T? So the previous K-O-P becomes K-O? Please clarify! Thank you!

Simonef February 19, 2022

I am struggling with this exact thing, why can we just make an assumption that is P is not playing tennis that O is now ranked higher than K, couldn't that same logic be applied to to S as well? Please we need answers

Emil-Kunkin March 22, 2022

Hi @simonef,

Generally speaking when we make scenarios we are able to move anyone in a way that isn't forbidden by a rule. For example, we could make up the following scenario

Golf: L M P S
Tennis: O K
and since this doesn't violate any rules, this is a valid scenario, a situation that could be true. However, there are other possible scenarios. Since we don't have any rules about what happens if not her M nor P play tennis, we could also use the following as a valid scenario.

Golf: L M P S
Tennis: O K

This also could be true.

However, we are being asked about what CANNOT be true. Since we know that wherever M goes S will go as well, if M plays golf then S cannot play tennis, and that if M plays tennis, S is ranked higher than m. Therefore, S can never be the lowest ranked tennis player