Brain Teasers
Hamburger Cook-Off
In the hamburger cook-off, the finals had just begun. However, one person in the contest had a store-bought hamburger. If the one who has the store-bought hamburger is lying and the innocent people are telling the truth, who is lying?
John: It wasn't Steven.
Nick: It wasn't Greg.
Steven: It wasn't Nick.
Kevin: It was John.
Greg: It was Kevin.
John: It wasn't Steven.
Nick: It wasn't Greg.
Steven: It wasn't Nick.
Kevin: It was John.
Greg: It was Kevin.
Answer
Kevin had the store-bought hamburger. The way to determine this is by looking first at Steven's statement. If "it wasn't Nick" is false, Steven must be lying, which means he's guilty, and Nick is also guilty. Since only one person is guilty, Nick and Steven made their hamburgers and are innocent. Because of this, John is also innocent. Kevin says it was John, which is false, since John has been cleared. Greg must also be telling the truth and is innocent.Hide Answer Show Answer
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Comments
May 07, 2008
However, if, as you say, there can be only one guilty party, Nick must be guilty too, since he is lying when he says it was Greg. Your teaser, as posted, is not solvable. You have three people making positive ID's of the guilty party, but all three chose a different party. Check your logic and try again.
Yeah, if Nick is innocent why is he saying it was Greg, if as you say it was Kevin? I think this needs to be edited to say "Nick: It wasn't Greg."
Agreeing with the others - the easiest way to see that there is an inconsistency here is that three people are saying, "It was xyz", each implicating a different person. If there is only one liar/guilty person (as stated in the problem), this is an impossible situation.
Ditto. If 2 out of 3 are telling the truth, you can't have 3 people saying it was somebody else and be able to solve the problem. "It wasn't Greg" would fix this.
see above
If anyone wants to correct it, feel free. I'm sick of correcting my own brain teasers.
then get them right?
it was quite easy
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