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A new look at Eddington's liar problem

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2016

Michael A. B. Deakin
Michael A. B. Deakin*
Affiliation:
School of Mathematical Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, Australia e-mail: michael.deakin@sci.monash.edu.au
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Extract

Eddington's ‘liar problem’ received its first truly public airing in his book New Pathways in Science [1], although it enjoyed a ‘prehistory’ (beginning with a mock examination paper) more fully detailed in his later discussion [7]. As posed, it reads:

If A, B, C and D each speak the truth once in every three times (independently), and A affirms that B denies that C declares that D is a liar, what is the probability that D was speaking the truth?

Type
Articles
Information
The Mathematical Gazette , Volume 93 , Issue 526 , March 2009 , pp. 1 - 9
Copyright
Copyright © The Mathematical Association 2009

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References

1. Eddington, A. S., New pathways in science, Cambridge University Press (1934); reprinted Ann Arbor (1959), chapter VI.Google Scholar
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