Arlene(A), Brenda(B), Cheryl(C), Daniel(D), Emmett(E) and Farley(F) stayed in a hotel.

1) Each stayed in a different one of six rooms as shown here, identified by his initials :

         +----+----+----+----+
         |    | C  |    | E  |
         | B  +----+ D  +----+
         |    |    |    |    |
         +----+    +----+    +
         |      A  |      F  |
         +---------+---------+

2) One of the six murdered one of the other five.

3) If the murderer and the victim stayed in rooms that did not border on each other, then Arlene or Farley was the victim.

4) If the murderer and the victim stayed in rooms that bordered on different numbers of rooms, then Brenda or Cheryl was the murderer.

5) If the murderer and the victim stayed in rooms that were different in size, then Daniel or Emmett was the murderer.

Who was the murderer? Who was the victim?

D killed A.

Here's why: A or F can't be the killer, because she would have to border the same amount of rooms as the victim and be in the same size room. Nothing fits.

B or C would have to border a different number of rooms and be in the smae size room. B could've killed D, but then A or F would be the victim, so it doesn't work.  Same with C killing E.

D or E would have to be in different size rooms that border the same number of rooms. If E killed B, than A or F would have to be the victim, so it doesn't work. Therefore D killed A, because their rooms are different sizes, they both border 4 others, and because they border each other, the victim could be anybody.

Peter

Posted by Peter on 2005-08-18 22:41:15