Question

A salesman must visit five families--the Browns, the Chans, the Duartes, the Egohs, and the Feinsteins--one after another, not necessarily in that order. The visit must conform to the following restrictions:

The Browns must be visited first or fifth.
The Feinsteins cannot be visited third.
The Chans must be visited fourth.
a) True
b) False

Answer 1

The combinatorics problem regarding the order in which a salesman must visit five families based on certain restrictions is true. The salesman can indeed visit the families in an order that complies with the conditions specified in the question.

Step-by-step explanation:

The statement 'A salesman must visit five families—the Browns, the Chans, the Duartes, the Egohs, and the Feinsteins—one after another, not necessarily in that order. The visit must conform to the following restrictions: The Browns must be visited first or fifth. The Feinsteins cannot be visited third. The Chans must be visited fourth.' is a logical reasoning problem that falls under combinatorics, a branch of mathematics that deals with counting, both as a means and an end in obtaining results, and certain properties of finite structures. The given statement requires determining the possible order of visits that comply with all the stated conditions. According to these conditions, the following sequences are possible:

1. Browns, (one of the three remaining families but not the Feinsteins), (one of the two remaining families), Chans, (the remaining family).
2. (One of the three families), (one of the two remaining families), (the remaining family but not the Feinsteins), Chans, Browns.

Considering these sequences, it can be deduced that the statement is true; the salesman can visit the families in a sequence that adheres to the given restrictions.