Who Killed Sharky in the Underworld Mystery?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around a mystery involving the murder of Sharky, a leader of the underworld, and the conflicting statements made by his four henchmen. Participants analyze the statements to deduce who the killer is, exploring logical reasoning and contradictions within the claims. The scope includes logical deduction and reasoning related to the problem.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Mathematical reasoning
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant suggests that if Socko's statement is true, it leads to a contradiction regarding the other statements, thus ruling out Socko as the truthful one.
  • Another participant proposes a method of negating each statement to check for contradictions, concluding that Muscles is the killer.
  • A different participant argues that the question is inconsistent, noting that one of the statements must be true while also suggesting that this leads to multiple true statements, contradicting the premise that only one is truthful.
  • One participant reiterates the original problem and explores various cases, concluding that contradictions arise in each scenario, leading to uncertainty about the identity of the killer.
  • Another participant expresses frustration, stating they deduced that Muscles is the killer, indicating a different conclusion than others.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants do not reach a consensus on who killed Sharky, with multiple competing views and deductions presented. Some participants believe Muscles is the killer, while others highlight contradictions in the statements that challenge this conclusion.

Contextual Notes

The discussion highlights limitations in the logical structure of the statements and the assumptions made by participants. The reliance on the premise that only one statement is true is questioned, leading to unresolved contradictions.

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Sharky , a leader of the underworld , was killed by one of his own band of four henchmen . Detective Sharp interviewed the men and determined that all were lying except for one. He deduced who killed Shark on the basis of the following statements :

a) Socko: Lefty Killed Sharky
b) Fats: Muscles didnt kill Sharky
c) Lefty: Muscles was shooting craps with Socko when Sharky was knocked off
d) Muscles: Lefty didnt kill Sharky

who did kill Sharky?
 
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Go through each of the four statements, assuming that that one is correct and the others incorrect. Here's #1:
By a, Lefty Killed Sharky. By b, Muscles killed Sharky; contradiction.

So a is lying.
 
i do it like this..
first i negation all of the statements
second Then i check it 1 by 1 see whether got contradiction a not(like what u had done)
third if there r a contradiction occurs , i will ignore it and go for the next.
last i found that it was Muscle who did kill Sharky

Is it like this?? My logic sense is quite poor..~ hehe
 
The question appears to be inconsistent.
1/ One of (a) or (d) must be true (because one statement is the complement of other)
2/ Similarly, one of (b) and (c) must be true.
Therefore, we find two true statement maker {one from (a) or (d) and the other from (b) or (c)}.
Thus the condition of the question that 'only one is stating the truth' does not hold good.
 
RyozKidz said:
Sharky , a leader of the underworld , was killed by one of his own band of four henchmen . Detective Sharp interviewed the men and determined that all were lying except for one. He deduced who killed Shark on the basis of the following statements :

a) Socko: Lefty Killed Sharky
b) Fats: Muscles didnt kill Sharky
c) Lefty: Muscles was shooting craps with Socko when Sharky was knocked off
d) Muscles: Lefty didnt kill Sharky

who did kill Sharky?

I think the question is fine, we have 4 cases to consider.

CASE 1: Socko is the one telling the truth. Then Lefty killed Sharky is the truth. But if Socko is the only one telling the truth, then the others must be lying. So Fats (who is lying) says that muscles didn't kill Sharky, ...thus Muscles DID kill Sharky. Two different people killed Sharky? Not possible...thus case 1 is ruled out.

CASE 2: Fats is the one telling the truth. So Socko, Lefty and Muscles are lying.

So we deduce from Socko's lying statement that...Lefty did not kill Sharky.

We deduce from Fats' true statement that...Muscles did not kill Sharky.

We deduce from Muscles lying statement that...Lefty did kill Sharky.

So Lefty did kill him, but also did not? That's a contradiction. So either case 3 or 4 is true. But you can figure using reasoning that one of them cannot happen...just like I did here.

CASE 3: 4 u
CASE 4: 4 u
 
Wow..~ But i deduced tat is Muscle who did kill Sharky..T_T''
 

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