Impossible Homework

Boycie

Boycie

Boycie

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Hey Guys,

My 11 year old brother has been given an activity to do for his homework and I have been rattling my brains for over an hour with it. Thought i might post it here because i'm sure some of you would give it a go, it's comparable in difficulty to the god tower if any one remembers that little game on the internet :D .

In a plane flying to london, five passengers are seated in a row next to each other.

(they are written in no order)
Their professions are:
Journalist, singer, teacher, sailer, engineer

Their nationalities in any order are:
English, French, German, Italian, Dutch

Their ages are:
21, 24, 32, 40, 52

And each of them plays one of the following sports:
Handball, Swimming, Volleyball, Athletics, Football

They will each travel from london to a different destination:
Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle, Plymouth

Now time for the clues...
Clue 1 - The engineer is sat on the extreme left
Clue 2 - The volleyball player is seated in the middle
Clue 3 - The englishman is a journalist
Clue 4 - The singer is 21 years old
Clue 5 - The teachers sport is swimming
Clue 6 - The sailor is travelling to plymouth
Clue 7 - The handball player is french
Clue 8 - The passenger from holland is going to birmingham
Clue 9 - The passenger going to liverpool is 32 years old
Clue 10 - The athlete is going to newcastle
Clue 11 - The french passenger is sat next to the german
Clue 12 - The 52 year old is seated next to the passenger going to manchester
Clue 13 - The 24 year old passenger is seated next to the passenger going to birmingham
Clue 14 - The engineer is seated next to the italian.

And now the questions.
1. How old is the Sailor?
2. What is the nationality of the football player?

Please note i'm not asking anyone to do it for him since that would be cheating I just thought that it might make an interesting thread to see if we can solve it :D
 
Write each of the items on a piece of paper and then link them as you go through the list of items. Unlinked items will be the answer to the questions. :)
 
education has stepped up a notch if thats what they give 11yr olds now, or 12weeks of not being at school has turned my brain to mush, probably the latter :o
 
This looks like the standard sort of logic problem that appears in some puzzle books. The best way to approach it is to construct a grid, rather on the lines of the one shown at the top of this page: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/4484/logic.htm

The one I've shown has four categories, three along the top, and three down the left hand side, with a six by six grid where each pair of categories intersects. For your case, you need to build a grid with six categories, rather than four, and with a five by five grid where each pair intersects.

Then mark with a tick all items that match, for example english/journalist, and a cross when items do not match. You then procede in a logical manner until all squares have either a tick or a cross.

I found this particular problem a little more tricky than the usual, as at one stage I had to duplicate the grid produced so far, and make one choice on one, and an alternative choice on the other. One of the two then resulted in an impasse, while the other lead to the solution.

I should add that one of the many jobs I do is working for a puzzle magazine ensuring that puzzles like this, and other types of puzzle too, can be solved, and have a unique solution.

My opinion is that this one is a little hard for 11yos, but am willing to be proved wrong.

Incidentally, the nationality of the footballer came out very quickly, but the age of the sailor took a little longer.
 
What the hell? My last 12 year old homework I can remember was ABC=Right angle triangle, AB=3 and BC = 4, find AC, not some fricking long qestions about people on planes, their nationality and age.

What are they testing them these days? I thought GCSE and A-Levels are getting easier, or am I missing something?
 
Its a famous puzzle known as Einsteins puzzle, as he is said to have come up with it, of course this isn't the orginal I dare say that its no longer PC to talk to twelve year olds abut tobbaco brands... :p

Ayway, what you do is cut out labels with individual attributes on them and then get 5 pieces of A4 paper and go through the list of clues putting stuff together, you'll have to go through it serveral times before you get it
 
Sailer: 40
Nationality of football player: Italian

Code: 
Far Left:	Left:		Middle:		Right:		Far Right:
Engineer	Sailer		Singer		Teacher		Journalist
Italian		French		German		Dutch		English
32		40		21		52		24
Football	Handball	Volleyball	Swimming	Athletics
Liverpool	Plymouth	Manchester	Birmingham	Newcastle
 
Drawoh Tesremos said:
Close, dan^uk. But it misses out on clue 14.
Click to expand...

Copy and pasted and missed the last one..

Code: 
Far Left:	Left:		Middle:		Right:		Far Right:
Engineer	Teacher		Singer		Sailer		Journalist
Dutch		Italian		German		French		English
40		32		21		52		24
Football	Swimming	Volleyball	Handball	Athlete
Birmingham	Liverpool	Manchester	Plymouth	Newcastle
 
Finally done it !!!! :D

Code: 
Engineer       teacher     journalist      singer        sailor
Dutch          Italian	english	german	french
52	          24	         32	         21	        40 
Football	swimming	Volleyball	athletics	handball 
Birmingham	Manchester	liverpool	newcastle	plymouth

grr can't line them up but you get the jist ! :p
 
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Here is mine, i dont know if anyone else has cracked this yet, its took me about 30mins :eek:

Engineer Teacher Journalist Sailor Singer
Dutch Italian English French German
52 24 32 40 21
Football Swimming Volleyball Handb Athlete
Brum Manchester Liverpool Plymoth Newcastle


Sailor = 40

football player is Dutch

Am i right :eek:

edit ahh damn its all messed up !
 
Last edited:
Drawoh Tesremos said:
I'm fascinated to know how jamiemoles got the right answer in 3 mins. Had he seen the same question before?
Click to expand...
The interweb knows all. Took me all of 10 seconds to find the exact same question (and the answers).
 
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