Exercise 1285Logic, sets and proofs › Quantifiers and negationL1Added 4 Nov 2026
Three numbers with signs
#sign analysis#implications#logic puzzle
Statement
Three numbers — one positive, one negative, one zero — satisfy:
Determine the sign of each.
Hint
Test each possible sign of ; use the implications and the "one of each sign" constraint.
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Solution
Test . Then , and gives . We would have two positive numbers , contradicting the hypothesis. So .
Test . Then , and gives . Again two positives (), contradiction. So ; hence .
Test . Then gives , another positive besides , contradiction. So ; since is the negative number and one number must be zero, .
Remaining. is the positive number.
Conclusion. , , .