2021/12/03 by Jeremy Avigad, Avigad, Jeremy, Seulkee Baek +7 · 1 voice
Computer Science · Mathematics · #03-01 (Primary) #03B35 #68V15 (Secondary) #FOS: Computer and information sciences #FOS: Mathematics #Logic (math.LO) #Logic in Computer Science (cs.LO) #cs.LO #math.LO
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2112.02142
arxiv published 2021/12/03 · arxiv updated 2022/04/23
In 1982, Raymond Smullyan published an article, "The Asylum of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether," that consists of a series of puzzles. These were later reprinted in the anthology, "The Lady or The Tiger? and Other Logic Puzzles." The last puzzle, which describes the asylum alluded to in the title, was designed to be especially difficult. With the help of automated reasoning, we show that the puzzle's hypotheses are, in fact, inconsistent, which is to say, no such asylum can possibly exist.