Persons 1-5 occupy houses (in that order) on a ring road. The houses are painted amber, blue, chartreuse, denim and ecru (not necessarily in that order).

Fact 1. Person #1 presently lives in a house that is neither ecru nor denim.

Fact 2. One and only one of Person #1 and Person #3 presently live next to the blue house.

Fact 3. Some time ago, two people switched houses. As a result of the switch, one and only one of Person #2 and Person #4 got a new neighbour.

Fact 4. Either both of amber’s neighbours were changed in the switch, or else both of amber's neighbours remained unchanged.

Who lives in the chartreuse house?

Note: Aus dem Haeuschen is German slang. Haeuschen, (cottage) is used as a metaphor for for "brain". Thus, Aus dem Haeuschen means, more or less, out of one's mind, in the sense of being enthusiastic about something.

Clarification: Each person (and each house) has two neighbours, namely the person living to the left and the right. If the left neighbour and the right neighbour change houses, the occupant in the middle does not get any new neighbours.

(In reply to Solution? by Fernando)

Hi Fernando,

I'm not certain I follow all points in your reasoning, but I did want to raise a concern about the diagram, since the problem states that (post move) the order of persons along the ring road are 1,2,3,4,5. You have 1,3,5,2,4, which cannot be reached by a switch either.

Maybe I was confused by your use of the "smiley" <o:p></o:p>. Smileys are changing all the time and I can't keep up. Does this one have something to do with the problem?

You are right about one thing: Chartreuse is a colour I can only associate with teenaged girls and embarassed giggling. Ecru and denim are even worse. Next time I'm going to leave the houses unpainted and plant asparagus, brocolli, cabbage etc.

Ojala no dejes de tu interesa y presentes tu ideas en total. Eres el primero (o el solo?) contestante. Quisiera seguir tus pensamientos.

Posted by FrankM on 2008-03-05 16:23:54