The logician Raymond Smullyan describes an island containing two types of people: knights who always tell the truth and knaves who always lie. You are visiting the island and have the following encounters with natives. (a) Two natives A and B address you as follows. A says: Both of us are knights. B says: A is a knave.

Question

Kaya Oconnor

Mathematics

30 April, 07:04

The logician Raymond Smullyan describes an island containing two types of people: knights who always tell the truth and knaves who always lie. You are visiting the island and have the following encounters with natives. (a) Two natives A and B address you as follows. A says: Both of us are knights. B says: A is a knave.

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Miah Moreno · Answer 1

A is a knave

B is a knight

Step-by-step explanation:

If A is telling the truth, then both are knights and B cannot be lying. However, since B claims that A is a knave, they can't be both knights, and there is no possible way that A is a knight.

If A is knave and thus is lying, they aren't both knights. Since B claims A is a knave, his statement can be true and thus B can be knight and A will be knave.