Q16

 
ShehryarB30
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Elle Woods
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Q16

by ShehryarB30 Tue Jan 08, 2019 9:30 pm

Could you pls explain this question
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ohthatpatrick
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Re: Q16

by ohthatpatrick Mon Jan 28, 2019 8:30 pm

If there are two cleanings, then we can only switch from M to S (or vice versa) twice.

In this game, we mainly base our scenarios around whether the 3 M's are all together, or split up 2 and 1 (we learn early on that they can never be all split up).

How many cleanings does a 3 together scenario have? Let's just try one:
S S S [] M M M [] S

That one would have two cleanings, so that applies! Let's look at answers and see which ones we can eliminate with this "could be" scenario.

eliminate (B), because SSSMMMS proves that M doesn't have to be 3rd.
eliminate (E), because SSSMMMS proves that M doesn't have to be 7th.

We can also use this first random scenario as a mental starting point for examining the remaining answers ... for each answer, could we tweak SSSMMMS so that it would be a counterexample to that answer.

(A) could we switch spot 2 to M? For example,
S [] M [] S S [] M M [] S

No, that was FOUR cleanings, so not even legal. Hmm! Maybe (A) is the answer!

(C) could we switch spot 2 to M? Sure,
S S [] M M M [] S S

Eliminate (C).

(D) could we switch spot 6 to S? Sure, we just did in the scenario we just wrote!
S S [] M M M [] S S

Since we eliminated the other four answers (using only two scenarios!), we know that (A) is correct.