Brain Teasers
The Experiment
Three human subjects underwent an experiment. They were each given one letter that could be found in the following words:
The, fit, lid, bet, and big.
If all three put their letters together, they would be able to spell one of the words above. However, the letter they were given could not be shared with any of the other four. They were all in the same room when a woman came through the door and sat down in front of them. She asked the first patient if he knew the what the word was that could be spelled using all three of the letters. He said yes. She then asked the other two patients and they both said yes.
What was the word and how did all three know having only one letter and not knowing the other two?
The, fit, lid, bet, and big.
If all three put their letters together, they would be able to spell one of the words above. However, the letter they were given could not be shared with any of the other four. They were all in the same room when a woman came through the door and sat down in front of them. She asked the first patient if he knew the what the word was that could be spelled using all three of the letters. He said yes. She then asked the other two patients and they both said yes.
What was the word and how did all three know having only one letter and not knowing the other two?
Hint
Assume that they did not cheat in any way and that each genuinely knew only the letter that they were given and that they told the truth when they said yes.Answer
The word it spelled was 'the'.The first subject answered yes, he knew the word. This told subject two that subject one had a letter that appeared only once throughout all five words. This means patient one's letter had to have been 'h', 'f', 'l', 'd', or 'g'. This in turn informed subject two that 'bet' could not be the word.
The third subject also made the same progress as subject two, figuring out that subject one's letter had to have been one that appeared only once. 'Bet' was then eliminated and subject two said yes, he knew the word. Subject three knew that if subject two knew the word, he had to have had a 'b', 'e', 'l', or 'd'. Subject three could then eliminate the word 'fit' from the list.
Patient three could only have had either an 't' or an 'i'. If he had an 'i', the word could have been 'lid' or 'big', but since he said yes he must to have had an 't'.
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