logical puzzles

logical puzzles

1]
At a recent painting competition, Eileen's rendition of a Constable was not last. Jenny only just managed to avoid last place and came third. The lady who painted a Monet was very successful and took first place. Ada beat the lady who painted the Taylor and the lady who painted the Van Gogh beat Vera. Can you determine who painted what and who won?



a]# Name Artist
1 Ada Monet
2 Eileen Constable
3 Jenny Van Gogh
4 Vera Taylor



2]At the recent spring fete, four keen gardeners were displaying their fine roses. In total there were four colours and each rose appeared in two colours. Mr Green had a yellow rose. Mr Yellow did not have a red one. Mr Red had a blue rose but not a green one, whilst Mr Blue did not have a yellow one. One person with a red rose also had a green one. One person with a yellow rose also had a blue one. One of the persons with a green rose had no red. Neither of the persons with a yellow rose had a green one. No person has two roses of the same colour and no two persons had the same two colour roses and their names provide no clues. Can you tell who had which colour roses?



a]Name Rose1 Rose2
Mr Blue red green
Mr Green yellow red
Mr Red blue yellow
Mr Yellow blue green


At the recent spring fete, four keen gardeners were displaying their fine roses. In total there were four colours and each rose appeared in two colours. Mr Green had a yellow rose (1). Mr Yellow did not have a red one (2). Mr Red had a blue rose but not a green one (3), whilst Mr Blue did not have a yellow one (4). One person with a red rose also had a green one (5). One person with a yellow rose also had a blue one (6). One of the persons with a green rose had no red (7). Neither of the persons with a yellow rose had a green one (8). No person has two roses of the same colour (9) and no two persons had the same two colour roses (10) and their names provide no clues. Can you tell who had which colour roses?

Firstly we label the clues. If we now create a grid for each person that has the two possible flowers they could have. Initially they each have the possibilty of BGRY (blue, green, red, yellow) and as we work our way through the clues we can eliminate certain options.

Person F1 F2
Blue BGRY BGRY
Green BGRY BGRY
Red BGRY BGRY
Yellow BGRY BGRY

From (1), (2), (3) and (4) we can reduced the options to:

Blue BGR BGR
Green Y BGRY
Red B BRY
Yellow BGY BGY

By (9) this becomes:

Blue BGR BGR
Green Y BGR
Red B RY
Yellow BGY BGY

By (8) we get:

Blue BGR BGR
Green Y BR
Red B RY
Yellow BGY BGY

Only Blue can satisfy (5), and Yellow is the only person who can have the other G.

Blue R G
Green Y BR
Red B RY
Yellow G BY

By (8), Yellow can't be Y.

Blue R G
Green Y BR
Red B RY
Yellow G B

Since there are only two of each colour, we can reduce further:

Blue R G
Green Y R
Red B Y
Yellow G B


QED.




3]At the local nursery school, I was chatting to my daughter's friends and noticed a number of things. Jessica has mousey coloured hair and the girl with black hair was wearing a green dress. Lucy is not blonde and Lauren does not have brown hair, Chloe was wearing a blue dress. The blonde girl was not wearing red and Lauren was not wearing green. I can't remember which girl was wearing a yellow dress. Can you determine the colours of the girl's dresses and their hair?



a]Name Dress Colour Hair Colour
Jessica red mousey
Lauren yellow blonde
Lucy green black
Chloe blue brown




4]Five patients, all potential blood donors, are waiting in the doctor's surgery and are sitting on the bench from left to right. Can you determine the position of each patient along with their blood group, age, height and weight? Their ages are 5, 9, 30, 46 and 60. Their heights are 40, 48, 60, 65 and 74. Their weights are 40, 75, 96, 125 and 165.

The person on the far right is 37 years older than Jason, and is 60 inches tall.
Jason weighs 56 pounds more than his height.
Alan weighs 75 pounds and is 74 inches tall.
John is type AB and weighs 56 pounds less than Jason.
The person in the centre is 9 years old, is blood type AO and weighs 96 pounds.
Adam, who is the first, is 65 inches tall, and weighs 100 pounds more than his height.
The person who is blood type O, is 25 years older than the person to the left of them.
Kevin is 60 years old.
The person who is blood type A, is 55 years younger than Kevin and is not next to the person who is type AO.
The person who is next to the 9 year old but not next to the person who is 65 inches tall, is blood type B, and weighs 125 pounds.




a] Name Type Age Height Weight
1 Adam A 5 65 165
2 Alan O 30 74 75
3 Jason AO 9 40 96
4 Kevin B 60 48 125
5 John AB 46 60 40





5]At a recent birthday party there were four mothers and their children. aged 1, 2, 3 and 4. From the clues below can you work out whose child is whose and their relevant ages? It was Jane's child's birthday party. Brian is not the oldest child. Sarah had Anne just over a year ago. Laura's child will be 3 next birthday. Daniel is older than Charlie. Teresa's child is the oldest. Charlie is older than Laura's child.


a]Mother Child Age
Jane Charlie 3
Teresa Daniel 4
Laura Brian 2
Sarah Anne 1




6]At the recent BrainBashers downhill mountain bike race, four entrants entered the challenging slalom event. Alan came first. The entrant wearing number 2 wore red, whereas John didn't wear yellow. The loser wore blue and Steve wore number 1. Kev beat Steve and the person who came second wore number 3. The entrant in yellow beat the entrant in green. Only one of the entrants wore the same number as their final position. Can you determine who finished where, the number and colour they wore?

a]# Name Wore Colour
1 Alan 2 red
2 Kev 3 yellow
3 Steve 1 green
4 John 4 blue



7]After the recent BrainBashers snail racing contest, the four contestants were congratulating each other. Only one snail wore the same number as the position it finished in. Alfred's snail wasn't painted yellow nor blue, and the snail who wore 3, which was painted red, beat the snail who came in third. Arthur's snail beat Anne's snail, whereas Alice's snail beat the snail who wore 1. The snail painted green, Alice's, came second and the snail painted blue wore number 4. Anne's snail wore number 1. Can you work out who's snail finished where, its number and the colour it was painted?

a]# Owner Wore Colour
1 Alfred 3 red
2 Alice 2 green
3 Arthur 4 blue
4 Anne 1 yellow


8]Five girls took part in a race. Alison finished before Bunty but behind Clare. Debby finished before Emma but behind Bunty. What was the finishing order?

a]Clare
Alison
Bunty
Debby
Emma




9]At a recent Pets Anonymous reunion, the attendees were discussing which pets they had recently owned. James used to have a dog. The person who used to own a mouse now owns a cat, but the person who used to have a cat does not have a mouse. Kevin has now or used to have a dog, I can't remember which. Becky has never owned a mouse. Only one person now owns the pet they previously had. Rebecca said very little throughout the meeting and nobody mentioned the hamster. Can you determine who owns which pet and what they used to own?

a]Name Current pet Previous pet
Becky hamster hamster
Kevin dog cat
James mouse dog
Rebecca cat mouse



10]Four friends were competing in the internationally renowned BrainBashers Bog Snorkelling competition. As usual, the judges were a little careless and once again, they managed to loose the results. Luckily, a number of spectators were able to remember the following snippets of information:

Only one person wore the same number as the position they finished. Gary, who didn't wear green, beat Barry. Larry beat the person who wore yellow. The person who wore number 3, wore green. The person who wore number 2 finished first whereas Harry came last. The person who finished second wore green, Barry wore yellow and the person wearing red beat the person wearing blue.

Can you work out who finished where, the number and colour they wore?

a]# Name Wore Colour
1 Gary 2 red
2 Larry 3 green
3 Barry 1 yellow
4 Harry 4 blue