Superheroes don’t just have physical powers. Often they come out on top because of their mental abilities. Sherlock is a good example, catching villains through logical thinking. Anyone can get better at thinking! Just practice.
It is important for everyone to be able to think clearly. It is especially true for programmers, detectives and lawyers as well as superheroes. You need to be able to work things out from the facts you know. The Ancient Greeks were very good at logic. They invented the idea of a ‘syllogism’. These are common patterns that combine facts where you figure out a conclusion only using the facts.
For example, if we know facts 1 and 2 below (where you can swap in anything for X, Y and Z) then we can create a new fact as shown.
So let’s replace X with the word superheroes, Y with fight crime and Z with my favourite superhero, Ghost Girl. If we put them in to the picture above we get the new picture:
In this case we can deduce the new fact that Ghost Girl fights crime. Notice how you use the plurals in Fact 1 and singular words in the other facts to make the English work.
Puzzles
Can you solve these Superhero Syllogism puzzles? Work out which conclusion is the one that follows from the given facts. Use our coloured template above to help.
Superhero syllogism puzzle 1
FACT 1: ALL superheroes do good.
FACT 2: The Invisible Woman is a superhero.
Which statement below (a, b, c or d) can we say from these facts alone? Don’t use anything extra, just use fact 1 and fact 2. (ANSWERS at the bottom of the page).
a) The Invisible Woman has superpowers.
b) The Invisible Woman does good.
c) The Invisible Man does good.
d) The Invisible Woman does not do good
Superhero syllogism puzzle 2
FACT 1: ALL superheroes sometimes accidentally do harm.
FACT 2: Jamila is a superhero.
What can we say from these facts alone?
a) Jamila sometimes accidentally does harm.
b) Jamila is not a superhero
c) Those with superpowers only do good.
d) Jamie is a superhero
Superhero syllogism puzzle 3
FACT 1: ALL supervillains laugh in an evil way.
FACT 2: The Spider is a supervillain.
What can we say from these facts alone?
a) The Spider sometimes accidentally does harm.
b) The Spider does not laugh in an evil way.
c) Supervillains are evil.
d) The Spider laughs in an evil way.
As long as the facts are true the conclusion follows, though if the facts are not true then nothing is really known.
Superhero syllogism puzzle 4
The following logic is good but something has gone wrong because the conclusion is not true. The superhero called the Angel does not actually have any superpowers! The Angel just wears a flying suit! Can you work out what has gone wrong with our logic?
1. ALL superheroes have superpowers.
2. The Angel is a superhero.
Therefore we can conclude from these facts alone that
3.The Angel has superpowers.
Answers are at the bottom of the page.
Fun to do
Take the pattern of the above syllogisms and invent your own. Just substitute your own words, but keep the pattern.See how silly the “facts” you can deduce are.
– Paul Curzon, Queen Mary University of London, first appeared in A BIT of CS4FN 2
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Answers
Superhero syllogism puzzle 1
Answer: b.
FACT 1: ALL superheroes … do good.
FACT 2: The Invisible Woman is a superhero
Therefore we can conclude from these facts alone that
NEW FACT: The Invisible Woman … does good.
Superhero syllogism puzzle 2
Answer: a.
FACT 1: ALL superheroes … sometimes accidentally do harm.
FACT 2: Jamila is a superhero
Therefore we can conclude from these facts alone that
NEW FACT: Jamila … sometimes accidentally does harm.
Superhero syllogism puzzle 3
Answer: d.
FACT 1: ALL supervillains … laugh in an evil way.
FACT 2: The Spider is a supervillain.
Therefore we can conclude from these facts alone that
NEW FACT: The Spider … laughs in an evil way.
Superhero syllogism puzzle 4
Something has gone wrong. We are told that The Angel has no superpowers. They just wear a special flying suit. The new fact is therefore not true. This means that one of the original ‘facts’ was not actually true. If we start from things that are not true then the things we deduce will not be true either! In this case
EITHER:
Some superheroes do NOT have superpowers
OR:
The Angel is NOT a superhero.
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