Good girls and bad boys (11)

Logic Level 3

On an island, there is this strange pattern - boys always lie while girls always tell the truth. Now you encounter five children.

  • The oldest one says, "The number of boys among us is an odd number."

  • The second one says, "The number of boys among us is an even number."

  • The middle one says, "The number of boys among us is a prime number."

  • The fourth one says, "The number of boys among us is a composite number."

  • The youngest one says, "The number of boys among us is a perfect square."

Convert the five children to a number based on their order of birth. Then submit your answer as the sum of the numbers of the boys only . For example, if you think only the youngest child is a boy, then your answer is 5. If you think only the middle three children are boys, then your answer is 2+3+4=9.


The answer is 11.

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2 solutions

Noel Lo
Jan 28, 2016

Look at the statements made by the two oldest ones. One must be true, the other false. So one of the must be a boy, the other a girl. Similarly, considering the statements made by the middle and youngest child, one must also be true, the other false as a prime number is never a perfect square. Similarly, a perfect square is never a prime. So we have another pair of a boy and a girl.

Now we have at least two boys and at least two girls. This means the number of boys is either two or three. Whichever way, it is true that the number of boys is prime since two and three are both primes. Hence the middle child must be a truth teller and hence a girl. A prime number of boys is definitely not composite or a perfect square so the two youngest are both liars and hence boys.

So we have the middle child a girl with her two younger brothers. Her two elder siblings must consist of an elder brother and an elder sister. Whichever way we know we will end up with three boys so the oldest one is telling the truth (and hence a girl) while the second one is lying (and hence a boy).

We have girl, boy, girl, boy, boy. Our desired answer is 2+4+5=11.

Nice problem!

Pranshu Gaba - 5 years, 4 months ago

Why do you have the answer at your title?

Tran Hieu - 5 years, 4 months ago

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Haha lol...that's a good observation I myself realised that too! I have a series of similar puzzles so this is the 11th puzzle haha! Don't think too much about it its just a coincidence! :)

Noel Lo - 5 years, 4 months ago

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You should create a set for all these 11 (or more) problems and advertise that set at the bottom of of the problem statements for all these problems!

Pi Han Goh - 5 years, 4 months ago
Saya Suka
Mar 17, 2021

Odd and even numbers are mutually exclusive, as are prime and composite numbers. So this means that we have a pair of boy-girl siblings with not just the oldest two but also the second duo pair (between the third and fourth siblings).

Anyway, in some configuration the oldest four is comprised of 2 boys and 2 girls, and therefore, the possibility for the 5 siblings are reduced to 3-2 or 2-3 for boys vs girls. Since neither 2 nor 3 is a perfect square, then the youngest must be a liar and a boy by default (or definition).

With the above-mentioned finding, we now have a total of 3 brothers and 2 sisters. 3 as an odd prime put the oldest and the middlemost children as the truthful sisters, so our answer should be 2 + 4 + 5 = 11.

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