Mr. and Mrs. Astor, Mr. and Mrs. Blake, Mr. and Mrs. Crane, and Mr. and Mrs. Davis were seated around a table as shown:

                      +---+
                      | 1 |
                +---+ +---+ +---+
                | 8 |       | 2 |
                +---+       +---+
            +---+               +---+
            | 7 |       o       | 3 |
            +---+               +---+
                +---+       +---+
                | 6 |       | 4 |
                +---+ +---+ +---+   
                      | 5 |
                      +---+

1) Mrs. Astor was insulted by Mr. Blake who sat next to her on her left.

2) Mr. Blake was insulted by Mrs. Crane who sat opposite him across the center of the table.

3) Mrs. Crane was insulted by the hostess who was the only person who sat between a married couple.

4) The hostess was insulted by the only person who sat between two men.

Who insulted the hostess?

Mr. Crane insulted the hostess.

The explanation is of course quite logical following the 4 rules given. But the key is rule 3).

By rules 1) and 2) we know the exact position of 3 people: Mrs. Astor, Mr. Blake and Mrs. Crane.

Knowing that to follow rules 3) and 4) we need to seat a woman on the right of Mrs. Astor and another woman on the right of Mrs. Crane.

Now, which one on each seat? To make sure that only one woman seats between a married couple following rule 3) the only solution is to seat Mrs. Davis on the right of Mrs. Astor and Mrs. Blake on the right of Mrs. Crane. From here we know who is the hostess: Mrs. Davis.

Now we seat the men. As before there is only one way to seat them and follow rule 3): Mr. Astor between Mrs. Crane and Mrs. Davis, Mr. Crane on the left of Mr. Blake and Mr. Davis on the right of Mrs. Blake.

In this way the only person who seats between 2 men is another man: Mr. Crane.

Enjoy,

G.

Posted by Salva on 2005-10-31 20:02:48