Kenneth Rosen Edition 6th Exercise 1.1 Question 15 (Page No. 18)

Question

For each of these sentences, determine whether an inclusive or, or an exclusive or, is intended. Explain your answer.

• A. Coffee or tea comes with dinner.
• B. A password must have at least three digits or be at least eight characters long.
• C. The prerequisite for the course is a course in number theory or a course in cryptography.
• D. You can pay using U.S. dollars or euros.

Answer 1

Coffee or tea comes with dinner : Exclusive OR
A password must have at least three digits or be at least eight characters long : Inclusive OR
The prerequisite for the course is a course in number theory or a course in cryptography : Inclusive OR
You can pay using U.S. dollars or euros : Exclusive OR

Comments

But in the student's solutions guide Prepared by Jerrold Grossman, It is given like this:

d) At first glance one might argue that no one would pay with both currencies simultaneously, so it would seem reasonable to call this an exclusive or. There certainly could be cases, however, in which the patron would pay a portion of the bill in dollars and the remainder in euros. Therefore, an inclusive or seems better.

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@Deepak Poonia 

If accepter take U.S dollar and Euro individually then more chances of take mixture also. Mixture of except these two currencies will not possible. Like, (u.s. dollar + inr)  will not acceptable. 

 

am I right, Sir? 

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For D, Inclusive OR is better choice.

Though, for these questions, there can not be any Universally-Agreed-Upon answer. These questions are Not suitable to be asked.

Answer 2

a) Coffee or tea comes with dinner.

Answer: Exclusive. One of the hot drinks can be served with dinner.

b) A password must have at least three digits or be at least eight characters long.

Answer: Inclusive. A password can contain both digits and characters.

c) The prerequisite for the course is a course in number theory or a course in cryptography.

Answer: Inclusive. Student willing to take the course has to pass one of them. It is possible that he/she passed both.

d) You can pay using U.S. dollars or Euros.

Answer: Exclusive. Combination of currencies is not acceptable. Customer can pay either using U.S. dollars or Euros