Logic Puzzle: The Solution

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The correct answer is YES.

On the face of it there doesn't seem to be enough information to solve this problem. After all, we don't know Anne's marital status.

What we do know is that she is either married or unmarried.

If Anne is married, and she is looking at George, who is unmarried, then the answer is yes.

If Anne is unmarried, and John, who is married, is looking at her, then the answer is also yes.

Comments

A Concession

Daphne Xu's picture

Someone who objected that we don't know if the characters are persons has a point. But (unless it makes the problem impossible to solve), we can assume they're talking about persons, given their names.

-- Daphne Xu

Another option:

She could be in a lesbian marriage and living in a location that still contends such marriages are not legal, or part of a common law marriage while currently being in a location that doesn't recognize the legality of such as well. In both situations, her marital status could be termed "inconclusive," again proving not enough information is provided :D

Melanie E.

Inconclusive Marriage?

Daphne Xu's picture

I would say that an inconclusive marriage means that Anne is still either married or not, so it's still true that a married person is looking at an unmarried person, but we can't tell which.

-- Daphne Xu

quantum state

It could be that Anne is married to a person who's in a box where a radioactive atom controls whether it releases poison. Therefore until we open the box, she's both married and unmarried.

Probably the Wrong Time

Daphne Xu's picture

This is probably the wrong time, or perhaps the wrong place, to discuss quantum theory.

-- Daphne Xu