Thomas loves elaborate riddles, and he is very good at solving them. He especially enjoys riddles such as this: "You throw away
the outside and cook the inside. Then you eat the outside and throw away the inside. What did you eat?" When asked how he solves the riddles, Thomas says that he just thinks about each of the elements and comes up with what they have in common (in this case, an ear of corn). What kind of reasoning is this?
Deductive reasoning is a way of thinking in which a conclusion is based on the consistency of multiple previous statements that are generally assumed to be true.
Thomas reaches the conclusion by coming up with what the statements have in common.
