If A $ B means A is the brother of B; A @ B means A is the wife of B; A # B…
2025
If A $ B means A is the brother of B; A @ B means A is the wife of B; A # B means A is the daughter of B and A * B means A is the father of B, which of the following indicates that U is the father-in-law of P?
- A.
P @ Q $ T # U * W
- B.
P @ W $ Q * T # U
- C.
P @ Q $ W * T # U
- D.
P @ Q $ T # W * U
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: A
In coded blood-relation puzzles, each symbol encodes one direct family relation. To find an indirect relation such as father-in-law, decode every symbol into its relation, trace shared parents through siblings, confirm gender where a gender-specific symbol is available, and combine the direct facts step by step; a person is someone's father-in-law only when that person is confirmed as the FATHER of that someone's spouse.
P @ Q means P is the wife of Q, so Q is P's husband.
Q $ T means Q is the brother of T, so Q and T are siblings and share the same parent(s).
T # U means T is the daughter of U, so U is a parent of T -- and therefore also a parent of T's sibling Q.
U * W means U is the father of W, which confirms U's gender as male; combined with the previous step, U is specifically the father (not merely an unspecified parent) of Q.
Since U is the father of Q, and Q is P's husband, U is the father of P's husband -- that is, U is the father-in-law of P.
Checking the remaining combinations of the four symbols shows none of them both link U as a parent of P's own husband through the daughter/brother pair AND confirm U's gender as father through a father-defining (*) link within that same chain -- in each other case the daughter-of link traces to a different person's parent, or the person confirmed as a father turns out to be a sibling of P's husband rather than his father. So only this chain establishes, without gender ambiguity, that U is the father-in-law of P.