In an apartment building five stories high with five apartments per floor, there live five men of different ages, each a multiple of 12. None of them live on the same floor or in the same apartment number for a given floor (i.e., if one of them lives in apartment 1A, none of the others lives in 2A, 3A, 4A, or 5A). Everyone in the building over age 70 is retired. From the clues below, determine the full name of each man, his age, his occupation (or former occupation, if retired), and the apartment he lives in.

(1) The zookeeper does not live in apartment “A” of any floor (which are on the far left), nor does the youngest man live in any apartment “E” (on the far right).

(2) Calvin lives below the nurse, who lives below Mr. Loomis.

(3) The sum of the ages of Edgar and the banker is less than or equal to the ages of the other three men, namely Mr. Knight, the man in apartment "B", and the inhabitant of the third floor.

(4) Blake lives to the right of the banker and to the left of Mr. Masse.

(5) From left to right live the man on the fourth floor, Mr. Nash, the Electrician, and the second oldest man.

(6) From top to bottom live the zookeeper, Mr. James, the man in apartment “C”, and Blake.

(7) The age of the oldest man, who is not the pastry chef, minus the age of the youngest, who is not Calvin, equals the age of Albert, who is not retired.

(8) The apartments of Calvin, the electrician, and the pastry chef lie on a diagonal line.

(9) Dan lives on the next floor from the banker, and two floors from Mr. Knight.

(10) The age of the man on the fifth floor is above average.

I'm pretty sure I could have made a bunch of assumptions and figured out everything using trial and error. I am trying, though, to form not only a solution, but an explanation for everything I am doing. So far, my solution is woefully incomplete, and I have elimated a number of possibilities, but with not one specific match proven yet. Is it possible to solve this, without assuming anything besides what explicitly stated above? I'm sure I have missed a few things, but there still remains a lot to be deduced. Maybe I'll post my thoughts thus far.

Posted by DJ on 2003-04-05 06:36:05