Topics / Logic, Statistics & Misc
Logic Puzzles
Truth-tellers/liars, deduction, self-referential statements, ordering puzzles
What you need to know
- A truth-teller makes only true statements; a liar makes only false ones. If says , then ( is a truth-teller) ( is true).
- "Must be true" means true in every scenario consistent with the givens; one counterexample world rejects a statement.
- "Some are " means at least one and allows "all." "All are " says nothing about whether any are .
- Nobody can say "I am a liar"; "we are both liars" can only come from a liar with a truth-telling partner.
How AMC 10 tests it
- Rare, usually positions 5–15, solved by casework rather than formula.
- "Which statements must be true?" with three Roman-numeral claims; test tiny invented worlds and read "some" literally.
- Truth-teller/liar tables where people describe each other; find one claim that fixes a relationship in both cases, then propagate.
Standard approaches
- Translate every sentence into a symbolic implication before reasoning.
- Find the anchor: a statement whose consequence holds whatever the speaker's type.
- Case-split on one person's type and propagate; a contradiction kills a branch.
- For "must be true," build the smallest world satisfying the hypotheses and see which statements fail.
Worked example
Ava, Ben, Cal, and Dee are each either a truth-teller or a liar. Ava says, "Ben and Cal are both liars." Ben says, "Exactly one of Ava and Dee is a liar." Cal says, "Dee is a truth-teller." Dee says, "Ava is a liar." How many of the four are truth-tellers?
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)
Solution. Dee's statement is the anchor: whether Dee tells the truth or lies, Ava and Dee have opposite types, so exactly one of them is a liar. That is Ben's claim, so Ben is a truth-teller. Then Ava's statement is false, so Ava is a liar and Dee is a truth-teller. Cal's claim about Dee is true, so Cal is a truth-teller. The answer is .
Pitfalls
- Reading "some are " as "some but not all," or reversing "all are ."
- Stopping at one consistent assignment without checking that the other branch fails.
- Negating a liar's " and " as "both false" instead of "at least one false."
- Importing real-world facts the problem never asserts.
Traps that recur
- Starting from red 1 (which fits anywhere) rather than from the most restricted cards, and getting lost in possibilities. (2003 AMC 10A #24)
- Assuming all alternaters answer alike; those who start truthful say no three times, those who start lying say yes three times. (2022 AMC 10A #12)
- Assigning Aditi 3 + 4 = 7 before noticing that Oscar's score of 4 already requires cards 1 and 3. (2021 AMC 10B #17)
- Assuming Ada must return to seat 5 (the right end) or forgetting that Dee and Edie's swap contributes zero net movement. (2016 AMC 10A #13)
Problems, easiest first
Consider the statement, "If is not prime, then is prime." Which of the following values of is a counterexample to this statement?
Ms. Carroll promised that anyone who got all the multiple choice questions right on the upcoming exam would receive an A on the exam. Which of these statements necessarily follows logically?
David, Hikmet, Jack, Marta, Rand, and Todd were in a -person race with other people. Rand finished places ahead of Hikmet. Marta finished place behind Jack. David finished places behind Hikmet. Jack finished places behind Todd. Todd finished place behind Rand. Marta finished in th …
In a certain land, all Arogs are Brafs, all Crups are Brafs, all Dramps are Arogs, and all Crups are Dramps. Which of the following statements is implied by these facts?
Agnes writes the following four statements on a blank piece of paper. At least one of these statements is true. At least two of these statements are true. At least two of these statements are false. At least one of these statements is false. Each statement is either true or …
All the high schools in a large school district are involved in a fundraiser selling T-shirts. Which of the choices below is logically equivalent to the statement "No school bigger than Euclid HS sold more T-shirts than Euclid HS"?
Tom has a collection of snakes, of which are purple and of which are happy. He observes that - all of his happy snakes can add, - none of his purple snakes can subtract, and - all of his snakes that can't subtract also can't add. Which of these conclusions can be drawn about Tom's snakes?
Forty slips of paper numbered to are placed in a hat. Alice and Bob each draw one number from the hat without replacement, keeping their numbers hidden from each other. Alice says, "I can't tell who has the larger number." Then Bob says, "I know who has the larger number." Alice says, "You do? Is your number …
Marley practices exactly one sport each day of the week. She runs three days a week but never on two consecutive days. On Monday she plays basketball and two days later golf. She swims and plays tennis, but she never plays tennis the day after running or swimming. Which day of the week does Marley swim?
Joey and his five brothers are ages 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13. One afternoon two of his brothers whose ages sum to 16 went to the movies, two brothers younger than 10 went to play baseball, and Joey and the 5-year-old stayed home. How old is Joey?
At a certain beach if it is at least and sunny, then the beach will be crowded. On June 10 the beach was not crowded. What can be concluded about the weather conditions on June 10?
On Halloween, children walked into the principal's office asking for candy. They can be classified into three types: Some always lie; some always tell the truth; and some alternately lie and tell the truth. The alternaters arbitrarily choose their first response, either a lie or the truth, but each subsequent …
Ravon, Oscar, Aditi, Tyrone, and Kim play a card game. Each person is given cards out of a set of cards numbered The score of a player is the sum of the numbers of their cards. The scores of the players are as follows: Ravon-- Oscar-- Aditi-- Tyrone-- Kim-- Which …
Five friends sat in a movie theater in a row containing seats, numbered to from left to right. (The directions "left" and "right" are from the point of view of the people as they sit in the seats.) During the movie Ada went to the lobby to get some popcorn. When she returned, she found that Bea had moved …
In a magical swamp there are two species of talking amphibians: toads, whose statements are always true, and frogs, whose statements are always false. Four amphibians, Brian, Chris, LeRoy, and Mike live together in this swamp, and they make the following statements. Brian: "Mike and I are different species." Chris: …
A telephone number has the form , where each letter represents a different digit. The digits in each part of the number are in decreasing order; that is, , , and . Furthermore, , , and are consecutive even digits; , , , and are …
If all alligators are ferocious creatures and some creepy crawlers are alligators, which statement(s) must be true?
Sally has five red cards numbered through and four blue cards numbered through . She stacks the cards so that the colors alternate and so that the number on each red card divides evenly into the number on each neighboring blue card. What is the sum of the numbers on the middle three cards?