Professor Levik was talking to a colleague who told him about a dinner party he had attended with his wife. The colleague told him the following things about the party:

1. There were four married couples present.
2. Each person had a unique hobby.
3. The eight people were seated around a dinner table with the host and hostess at either end and three people seated on either side.
4. Only one married couple were seated beside each other.
5. A man was seated on either side of the hostess.
6. A woman was seated on either side of the host.
7. The hostess likes to ride horses.
8. Donna collects stamps.
9. Carol and her husband were seated on the same side of the table.
10. The piano player was seated next to his brother-in-law.
11. The person who grows roses was seated next to the person who does needlepoint.
12. Frank was seated directly across from the person who builds model planes.
13. Harold is seated to the immediate right of the hostess.
14. George and Betty were seated directly across from each other.
15. Alice is married to Edward.
16. Donna's sister-in-law is seated directly across from Carol.
17. The piano player was seated next to the hostess.
18. The stamp collector's husband was seated across from the model plane builder.
19. Carol was seated immediately to the left of George.
20. Alice is married to the fisherman.
21. The person who does needlepoint was seated across from the actress.
22. The actress was seated immediately to the right of the host.
23. The fisherman was seated across from his sister.
24. Frank was seated next to Edward.

What was each person's hobby, and where did they sit?

(In reply to re: Nikki's Answer + Solution by mark conley)

Mark – Technically, I should have written that I came to the Host, F1, F2, M1, Hostess, M2, M3, F3 conclusion using clues 5, 6, AND 3. In case that doesn’t help enough, I go into a little more detail on just that part.

Clue 3 says the host and hostess are seated at either end of the table, with three people between them on either side of the table. So, so far we have:

     ? ? ?
Host       Hostess
     ? ? ?

Then Clue 5 says a man was seated on either side of the Hostess. So we have:

     ? ? M
Host        Hostess
     ? ? M

And clue 6 says a woman was seated on either side of the Host. So we have:

     F ? M
Host       Hostess
     F ? M

Ok, well we have 3 men and 3 women accounted for. So the two remaining seats (? and ?) must have one man and one woman. So we could have either of the two arrangements:

     F F M                  F M M
Host       Hostess     Host       Hostess
     F M M                  F F M

So then I simplified this and basically said "ok, Clockwise / Counter-clockwise aside, the seating order goes Host, F1, F2, M1, Hostess, M2, M3, F3" (the 1, 2 and 3 are just for reference later in my original solution)

I hope that helps!

Posted by nikki on 2005-01-06 13:08:40