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Re:A Simple Logical Puzzle That Shows How Illogical People Are by greggyb on Friday May 22, 2015 @04:11PM (#9590676)
If (1) must be verified, how can you know that the blue card has a number on the other side?

To verify (1) you must prove that each card has a color on one side and a number on the other. The only way to do this is to see both sides of each card.

Re:A Simple Logical Puzzle That Shows How Illogical People Are by ikeboy on Friday May 22, 2015 @04:20PM (#9590726)
Oh, you mean actually verifying 1. I wasn't doing that. I was just doubting 1 being true, but interpreting the problem as asking you to verify 2, in which case you only need to turn over 5,8, and green.
Re:A Simple Logical Puzzle That Shows How Illogical People Are by greggyb on Friday May 22, 2015 @04:27PM (#9590750)
Okay, now I'm really confused about what you meant with your original post in this thread.

If you doubt (1), how is it that you need to verify that the 5 has a color, but not that the blue has a number on the other side?

To verify (2) you only need to prove that every even card has a blue back. An odd may be blue or green, but an even must be blue. Hence the 5 is fine, it can have any color. The blue is fine, because it can have any number. But that 8 must have a blue back, and that green must have an odd number.

Re:A Simple Logical Puzzle That Shows How Illogical People Are by ikeboy on Friday May 22, 2015 @04:44PM (#9590827)
>The problem with this is that the 5 card also needs to be turned; it might have an even number on the back.

If you can't be sure that the cards have a color and a numbers, there's nothing outlawing a 5-6 card, which breaks (2).

Re:A Simple Logical Puzzle That Shows How Illogical People Are by greggyb on Friday May 22, 2015 @04:56PM (#9590873)
So if I understand correctly:

You trust that if a card has a color on one side, it has a number on the other side.

You do not trust that if a card has a number on one side, it has a color on the other side.

Is this correct?

Re:A Simple Logical Puzzle That Shows How Illogical People Are by ikeboy on Friday May 22, 2015 @05:08PM (#9590906)
No. I don't make any assumptions as to anything I can't see.

However, regardless of what's on the back of blue, (2) will still be correct; the consequent is true, therefore the conditional is true.

Re:A Simple Logical Puzzle That Shows How Illogical People Are by greggyb on Friday May 22, 2015 @05:30PM (#9590979)
Okay, I see where you're coming from now.

(1) may or may not be true. Understanding that we cannot trust (1), but that we don't care to verify it, then the 5 is necessary to prove (2).

That is much more subtle than I originally interpreted from you original post. Thanks for your patient explanation.