2014-2015 POTW results

The results are in for the Emmanuel College Math Department's Puzzle of the Week contest for the 2014-2015 academic year! Congrats to the top three points-scorers:

1. Sarah Tubridy
2. Darren Parke
3. Paul Bleau

They won some excellent math books, picked out by yours truly:

• The Artist & the Mathematician, by Amir Aczel
• Proofiness, by Charles Seife
• The Man Who Loved Only Numbers, by Paul Hoffman

I recommend all three of these books!

Please spread the word about POTW for next year. We're always looking to get more regular participants!

If you have comments or suggestions about the POTW, leave a comment here or send an email to sullivanb@emmanuel.edu.

For instance, if you want to suggest a format change (bi-weekly, submit answers via blog, etc.) or have some puzzles you want to share, or anything like that ... just let me know.

Until the fall semester ... keep on puzzling.

Puzzle: Another encounter with Illogical Club

Submissions to this puzzle are due by 6:00pm on Thursday, April 16.
EC Math Club is hosting a games night at 6:30pm on Thursday. At that event, we will hand out prizes for the year-long standings in POTW. Come to claim your prize and play some games!
(See sidebar for submission rules: email sullivanb@emmanuel.edu)

To join Logic Club, you must decide to always tell the truth or always lie. Members of Logic Club know who among them are Liars and who are Truthers, and they always follow the rules according to their role. They also know who is not  a member of Logic Club (e.g. who is a member of Illogical Club).

Members of Illogical Club sometimes tell lies and sometimes tell truths. It depends on their mood! (However, members of Illogical Club do happen to know which members of Logic Club are Truthers and which are Liars; they may just choose to tell lies or truths about their knowledge.)

You attend a campus event and bump into three people. In general, you may have to determine which club someone belongs to, based on their statements. However, for this puzzle, you happen to know that there is exactly one Illogical Club member, exactly one Logical Truther, and exactly one Logical Liar in your midst.

• X says: "I am in Logic Club and I am a Truther."
• Y says: "I am in Logic Club and I am a Liar."
• Z says: "Y is in Illogical Club."

Who is the Logical Truther, who is the Logical Liar, and who is the Illogician?

Note: A correct answer is good, but an explanation is better.

Puzzle: First encounter with Illogical Club

Submissions to this puzzle are due by midnight on Sunday April 12.
(See sidebar for submission rules: email sullivanb@emmanuel.edu)

To join Logic Club, you must decide to always tell the truth or always lie. Members of Logic Club know who among them are Liars and who are Truthers, and they always follow the rules according to their role.

Members of Illogical Club sometimes tell lies and sometimes tell truths. It depends on their mood! (However, members of Illogical Club do happen to know which members of Logic Club are Truthers and which are Liars; they may just choose to tell lies or truths about their knowledge.)

(In this first encounter with Illogical Club, you know who belongs to which club. In the future, you may have to determine which club someone belongs to, based on their statements!)

You attend a campus-wide recruitment fair. There, you find a table for Logic Club attended to by two members thereof: Larry and Linda.

Next to them is a table for Illogical Club, attended to by a sole member thereof: Igor.

You approach the two tables and, unprovoked, the club members speak to you:

• Igor says: "Larry is a Truther."
• Larry says: "If what Igor just said is a truth, then Linda is a Liar."
• Linda says: "What Igor just said is a lie."

What are the roles of these Logic Club members, and why? Is Igor's statement a truth or a lie?

Note: A correct answer is good, but an explanation is better.