Two ladies and two men are playing bridge and seated at North, East, South and…

Concept — Around a table whose seats lie on the four cardinal sides, every player faces the centre of the table, so the direction a person faces is always the opposite of the side they occupy. Two people are seated opposite each other exactly when their sides are opposite, that is North with South and East with West.

Application

Seat-to-facing map — every player faces the centre, so each of the four directions is faced by one person:

1. No lady is facing East. The person who faces East is the one seated on the West side, so the West side is occupied by a man.

2. One man is facing South. The person who faces South is the one seated on the North side, so the North side is occupied by a man. Both men are now placed.

3. Persons sitting opposite each other are not of the same sex. The North side holds a man, so the South side holds a lady; the West side holds a man, so the East side holds a lady.

4. The lady on the South side faces North and the lady on the East side faces West, so the two ladies are facing North and West.

Cross-check

• The other reading of the stem, in which sitting at North means facing North, gives the same result: the East seat cannot hold a lady, and the South seat holds the man who faces South, so the ladies take the two remaining seats and face North and West. The answer does not depend on which convention is used.

• Any pair that includes East would need a lady facing East, which the second condition forbids, and any pair that includes South would need a lady facing South, where a man is already placed. A workable pair does exist among the given values, so the none-of-these escape is not needed.

Answer — The two ladies are facing North and West.