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| A Timely Manner (Posted on 2004-01-11) |
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After the second formal dance the friends had attended, they got ready for this dance, which was based on an article called "Miraculous Melons".
The four friends looked in their closet and decided that they wanted to mix things up. They each picked out one shirt, tie and suspenders from what the four had accumulated. (They had accumulated red, blue, green and white of each.)
When the four friends decided to meet at the dance, they all arrived at slightly different times, and as a result some people got to the dance earlier than others.
After the dance, the old fifth friend (called A) came to visit and asked someone who went (called B) about the dance. Based on the conversation, can you figure out what shirt, tie and suspenders were worn by each person, and in what order they came in?
A: When did everyone arrive at the dance?
B: Well, I know that the only person that came in between the person with the red shirt and the person with the green suspenders (in no particular order) was wearing a white tie.
A: What else did you notice about the time people came in?
B: Well, I know that the person wearing the green shirt came in just before the person wearing the red suspenders, and he came in just before the person wearing the red tie.
A: What did they do do when you were at the dance?
B: We took a picture of all four of us. It showed three of us standing: the person with the blue shirt on the left, the person with the blue tie in the middle, and the person with the white suspenders on the right. The other person was sitting down in the middle because he arrived last of all four of us.
A: I have one more question. I heard that you took off your green tie and gave it to a girl you liked. Did anything happen?
B: I am planning on taking her and I hope to wear the same shirt as I did this year. It was a red or blue shirt, I don't remember which.
A: I have to go now, bye!
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Submitted by Gamer
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Rating: 3.8000 (10 votes)
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Solution:
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(Hide)
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The way to solve this one is to break it into 3-person strings of information. From the first answer and the second answer, we get these two strings:
Red-shirt, white-tie, green-suspenders: or
green-suspenders, white-tie, red-shirt
green-shirt, red-suspenders, red-tie
Because each person was wearing only one of each, we can eliminate many possibilities. For example, putting the red-shirt first and the red-tie last wouldn't work, because then we get the third person's suspenders are a contradiction, being red and green. Because of this, we can see that the string "Red-shirt, white-tie, green-suspenders" won't work. This leaves two possibilities.
green-suspenders, white-tie, red-shirt
green-shirt, red-suspenders, red-tie
green-suspenders, white-tie, red-shirt
, green-shirt, red-suspenders, red-tie
If the first possibility was true, then the person speaking (with the green tie) must have worn the blue shirt since we are assuming the person with the red shirt wore the red tie. Since all 3 people so far are wearing a non-blue shirt or a non-green tie, the speaker must be first, since in the picture taken, the person wearing the blue shirt was a different person than the person that arrived last.
Then, like the concern last time, the white suspenders become important. The person that came second wore green suspenders, and the person that came third wore red suspenders, so neither of them had the white suspenders. By the picture taken, neither the person who came first (who wore the blue shirt), or the person who came last wore the white suspenders. This shows that the first possibility is wrong.
Working with the second possibility, we look at the picture, which shows the person that came last didn't wear a blue shirt. Since the people who came second and third aren't wearing a blue shirt either, it must be the person who came first who wore a blue shirt, which means the person with the white shirt came last.
From the picture, we can also see that the person with the blue shirt didn't wear the blue tie, and since the people who came second and last are already wearing a tie, we can see the person with the blue tie came third. This means the speaker (the one with the green tie) is wearing the blue shirt instead of the red shirt.
Finally, using the picture we know that the person wearing white suspenders didn't come last, and must have instead come second, which means the person who came last wore blue suspenders.
First: Blue shirt, Green tie, Green suspenders
Second: Green shirt, White tie, White suspenders
Third: Red shirt, Blue tie, Red suspenders
Fourth: White shirt, Red tie, Blue suspenders |
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