GeekDad Puzzle of the Week: The Dugong Reunion – Solution

Congratulations to Susan Russell who drinks among the Dugong and wins a $50 gift code to ThinkGeek!
Thanks to all readers who submitted answers but were turned away from the cantina. (You shouldn’t be hanging around Mos Eisley anyway.) Check out the solution after the jump for $10 off of your next ThinkGeek purchase of $30 or more.

Special thanks to ThinkGeek for providing our prizes!

A pleasant voyage through the outer rim finds you on Tatooine at the cantina at Mos Eisley. Scum and villainy aside, this particular day finds it filled with a reunion of tribes of the Dugong race. The Flax tribe is composed of those with at least four arms who are not hornless, of all hornless Dugong who are not members of the Kraptari clan, and of all members of the Kraptari clan with fewer than four arms.

It’s a private party, but it’s hot on Tatooine and you’re thirsty.
The bouncer tells you that you can come in if you answer correctly:
“Can you tell whether a Dugong is a member of Kraptari clan if it—”

1. Has seven arms, is hornless, is not a member of the Flax tribe?
2. Has two arms, has horns, is not a member of the Flax tribe?
3. Has three arms, is hornless, and is a member of the Flax tribe?

Solution

You answer the bouncer’s questions:

1. Yes. The Dugong is a member of the Kraptari clan.
2. Yes. The Dugong is not a member of the Kraptari clan.
3. No. It is impossible to tell.

The bouncer lets you in and the Chieftain of the Kraptari clan itself buys you a drink.

Question 1: If it is not Kraptari and since it is hornless, it can be Flax. But it is not Flax, therefore it is Kraptari.

Question 2: If it is Kraptari, it has fewer than four arms and would be Flax. But it is not Flax, therefore it is not Kraptari.

Question 3: Since it has fewer than four arms and is Flax, it can be Kraptari or, since it is hornless and Flax, it can be “not Kraptari,” therefore it is not possible to tell.

For the more masochistic among us, you can also create a table of the four classes of Kraptari and not Kraptari for 16 possibilities and diagramming known and eliminated factors.

Coupon code GEEKPUZZLE will get you $10 off of your next purchase of $30 or more at ThinkGeek!

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