The Lost Boys Questions - - Question 24

If no island that is directly connected by bridge with M is also directly connected by bridge with O, then there must...

shawnrjune@gmail.com August 7, 2022

Question explanation and video

Why is there no coverage over this question for either explanation and or video?

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OBSN August 11, 2022

I was stuck on this for a few minutes, but I think I have figured it out.

Per the rules of the game, the connections we know for sure are:

J----O
M----O

Now, this question is posing that nothing connected to M is also connected to O. If this is true, what does it necessitate? In other words, what would guarantee that nothing is connected to both M and O?

Since J is already connected to O, we know that J cannot be connected to M, eliminating answer choice B.

Further, L----O and L----M do not necessarily stop each other from occurring simultaneously. If L----O, it could still L----M (and vice versa) because the rules allow up to three bridges. Because of this, answer choices D and E are eliminated.

K----O does lock out the possibility of L----O, eliminating the chances of L----O and L----M, which is definitely a step forward; however, it does nothing to eliminate J----M, which would mean that we would have J----O and J----L, violating the sufficient condition in the question. For this reason, answer choice C is out.

If we supposed J----L, this would mean that J----O and J----L are the only options for J (since the rules mandate that J only has two bridges), eliminating the possibility of J----O and J----M.

J must have 2 bridges. It cannot connect to K since K must connect to either O or M for a total of 1 bridge. J also cannot connect with M, since that would be in violation of the sufficient condition in the question. So, the only remaining option is for J----L, and this is necessary to the problem.

The correct answer is A (J with L).


enochswalk August 24, 2023

Very helpful, Ryan. Thank you.