Puzzle Details
BrainBashers Derby - Logic Puzzles
After the local BrainBashers Derby, some friends were telling everyone who had won.
Unfortunately, the friends were having problems with their memories and in the course of the evening they changed their minds a number of times.
In summary they made the following statements:
Alex said:
Stevie Short won on Quick Cloud.
Tyler Tiny won on Morning Sunset.
Drew Diddy won on Quick Cloud.
Blake said:
Sam Small won on Blue Paws.
Drew Diddy won on Quick Cloud.
Stevie Short won on Morning Sunset.
Chris said:
Tyler Tiny won on Blue Paws.
Sam Small won on Blue Paws.
Sam Small won on Morning Sunset.
Dale said:
Tyler Tiny won on Quick Cloud.
Drew Diddy won on Morning Sunset.
Sam Small won on Blue Paws.
However, none of the statements were fully true.
In fact, only six of the statements were exactly half true (i.e. either the person won, or the horse did), the rest were false.
Can you determine who won and which horse they were riding?
Puzzle Copyright © Kevin Stone
workings
hint
answer
print
Hint
As no clue was wholly true, using a grid, we can eliminate 9 possibilities, leaving just 3.
Answer
Stevie Short won on Blue Paws.
By grouping the clues together we have:
1 Drew Diddy won on Morning Sunset.
2 Drew Diddy won on Quick Cloud.
3 Drew Diddy won on Quick Cloud.
4 Sam Small won on Blue Paws.
5 Sam Small won on Blue Paws.
6 Sam Small won on Blue Paws.
7 Sam Small won on Morning Sunset.
8 Stevie Short won on Morning Sunset.
9 Stevie Short won on Quick Cloud.
10 Tyler Tiny won on Blue Paws.
11 Tyler Tiny won on Morning Sunset.
12 Tyler Tiny won on Quick Cloud.
We know that none of these statements were fully true, so we know that (e.g.) it wasn't Drew Diddy on Morning Sunset.
We can create a grid of all of the possibilities and place an X where we know that it can't have been that combination:
| |
B-P |
M-S |
Q-C |
| Drew |
O |
X |
X |
| Sam |
X |
X |
O |
| Stevie |
O |
X |
X |
| Tyler |
X |
X |
X |
We now have an X for all but 3 possibilities, and we know that exactly 6 of the clues must be half true. So...
If it was Drew Diddy on Blue Paws then exactly 7 clues would be half true (clues 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10).
If it was Sam Small on Quick Cloud then exactly 8 clues would be half true (clues 4, 5, 6, 7, 2, 3, 9, 12).
If it was Stevie Short on Blue Paws then exactly 6 clues would be half true (clues 8, 9, 4, 5, 6, 10) - so this must be the correct answer.
Share link: www.brainbashers.com/puzzle/zxsc
