On a certain game show, five families were asked to match famous names to faces they were shown, and each correct guess got one point. The families made the following guesses (in order):

The Addams' guessed Otto, Roebling, Steinmetz, Tesla, and Westinghouse.
The Bunkers guessed Tesla, Westinghouse, Otto, Steinmetz, and Roebling.
The Cunninghams guessed Roebling, Tesla, Steinmetz, Westinghouse, and Otto.
The Flintstones guessed Tesla, Roebling, Otto, Steinmetz, and Westinghouse.
The Jetsons guessed Tesla, Westinghouse, Steinmetz, Otto, and Roebling.

No two families got the same number of points. Which family walked home with the grand prize?

(In reply to Trial and Error question by nikki)

Nikki, you mean, can this problem be solved deductively rather than inductively ?

Prove it mathematically. For the given answer patterns of the five families, where for instance, only the Bunkers, the Flintstones and the Jetsons agree on the first answer; the Adams and the Flintstones agree on the second, while the Bunkers and Jetsons agree on a different answer for the second, etc., you can write a mathematical equation proving that only one set of results would not have any duplicate family scores.

[Incidentally, the only reason the Flintstones won this contest, was that the Kramdens and Nortons weren't invited to join.]

 

 

 

 

Edited on May 2, 2005, 1:27 pm

Posted by Penny on 2005-05-02 13:21:36