Top four people and their occupation were listed in a magazine.

 place   1st name    surname    occupation
-------------------------------------------
   1      Isaac      Newtune    welder
   2      Albert     Eyeline    gardener
   3      Marie      Curious    cleaner
   4      Paul       Darling    bricklayer
-------------------------------------------

However, only one entry in each of the three righmost columns was correctly positioned. The following facts were true:
(1) Albert was two places above the bricklayer.
(2) Darling was one place below Paul.
(3) Curious was two places below the welder.

Find the first name, surname and occupation for each position.

From the 3 true facts:<o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

      Albert can only be 1 or 2<o:p></o:p>

      Welder can only be 1 or 2<o:p></o:p>

      Paul can only be 1, 2 or 3 <o:p></o:p>

      Darling can only be 2, 3 or 4<o:p></o:p>

Bricklayer can only be 3 or 4<o:p></o:p>

Curious can only be 3 or 4<o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

Starting with (1), assume Albert is indeed correctly positioned in 2^nd place, so the bricklayer is therefore in 4^th place.  Since these would be the only ‘correct’ entries for their respective columns, Isaac can be eliminated from 1^st and Marie from 3^rd (Paul’s already eliminated from 4^th).  Similarly with the bricklayer placing 4^th, the welder, gardener and cleaner can be eliminated as options for 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd places respectively.<o:p></o:p>

At this point, the only remaining occupation left available for 3^rd is gardener, and by further subsequent elimination, only cleaner remains for 1^st and therefore the welder (Albert) is 2^nd.  The occupations are now all assigned by place.<o:p></o:p>

From (3), Curious is two places below the welder, and is therefore the bricklayer in 4^th.  Since Darling is therefore eliminated from 4^th, Paul is now eliminated from 3^rd, as per (2), and the only place left for him in the rankings is 1^st.  By further sequential elimination, only Isaac is left in 3^rd place, and therefore Marie in 4^th. <o:p></o:p>

With Paul in 1^st, fact (2) therefore assigns Darling to 2^nd.  With Curious and Darling now gone, that leaves the only two remaining options for both 1^st and 3^rd to be Newtune and Eyeline, and of these options, only Newtune is correctly placed in the surname column, in 1^st, leaving Eyeline in 3^rd.<o:p></o:p>

So:<o:p></o:p>

1^st:  Paul Newtune, cleaner<o:p></o:p>

2^nd:  Albert Darling, welder<o:p></o:p>

3^rd:  Isaac Eyeline, gardener<o:p></o:p>

      4^th:  Marie Curious, bricklayer

Posted by rod hines on 2008-10-20 12:02:44