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Logic – Truth Tables

September 17th, 2015 by John Lehet

Today’s post is something different – Truth Tables. Truth Tables are a great way to learn and master logical statements. That is conditional statements and combining statements with AND (Conjunction) and OR (Disjunction), as well as negating statements. I have developed two new sets of practice problems for truth tables. General statements “p” and “q” are used to represent any statement. Just to review, a statement must be true (T) or false (F). For each problem set, there are four rows (randomly presented in each problem set) and a randomly selected statement. All you have to do is determine the truth value (T or F) of the statement for each row.

As with most of my practice problem sets, perfect practice is imperative. Immediate feedback is provided and this helps you to learn and improve. There are two problem sets below (both interactive). The first does not include any negated statements, so it should help you ease into being successful. The second problem set has everything, AND, OR, Negation and Conditional Statements. All you have to do is to correctly determine the truth values (either TRUE or FALSE) for each statement.

Problem Set 1
AND/OR and Conditional Statements

Problem Set 2
AND/OR/Negation and Conditional Statements

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Puzzle #6 – The Land of Wishy-Washy

March 7th, 2014 by ewcAdmin
WishyWashy

“Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong” – Winston Churchill

You awake one day to find you’ve been shipwrecked on an island – The Island of Wishy Washy. The Island of Wishy-Washy had three types of natives. The Wishy, the Washy and the Wishy-Washy. Only natives could tell each of them apart. The Wishy always tell the truth and the Washy always lie. The Wishy-Washy sometimes tell the truth and sometimes lie. It all depended what they heard immediately before. If what they heard immediately before was the truth, then they would lie. If what they heard immediately before was a lie, then they would tell the truth.

So, if a Wishy answered immediately before a Wishy-Washy, then the Wishy-Washy would lie because a Wishy always tells the truth. If a Washy answered immediately before a Wishy-Washy, then the Wishy-Washy would tell the truth because a Washy always lies. If you don’t know what the statement was before a Wishy-Washy speaks, it could be either a true or false, depending on what the Wishy-Washy heard last (not you).

A curious fact about the natives of the Island of Wishy-Washy is that they never are seen with one of their own kind. That is, a Wishy is never with another Wishy. If a Wishy is walking with another native it is most certainly either a Washy or a Wishy-Washy.

Puzzle 1 – After awaking and realizing you’re on the Island of Wishy-Washy, you are immediately approached by three natives

  • – the first says, “Hi, I’m a Wishy”
  • – the second says, “Hi, I’m a Washy”
  • – the third says “Hi, I’m a Wishy-Washy”

Can you determine which is which?

Puzzle 2 – The next day, you’re taking a walk on the beach, and again three natives approach. This time, you ask “Are you a Wishy-Washy?” to all three.

  • – the first replies, “Yes, I’m a Wishy-Washy.”
  • – immediately the second points to the first and says, “That’s a lie!”
  • – to this, the third points to the second and says “No, that’s a lie!”

Can you determine which is which?

Puzzle 3 – The next day just two natives approach you. The first says, “I’m a Wishy-Washy” and the second says the same. Can you tell what they really are and which is which?

The Island of Wishy-Washy is an original logic puzzle. There are many further, more challenging puzzles concerning the Island of Wishy-Washy that will be introduced throughout the next year. Please enter a comment with any solutions in order share with others. Best of luck with solving these puzzles.

This puzzle is a reprinted puzzle from my original BLOG (on Facebook).  I will be introducing new and more Wishy-Washy puzzles in the future.