At last month's rehearsal, four top athletes competed in two 400-metre qualifiers.
As the results were expected to be mislaid, various notes were taken to ensure the accuracy of the overall placings:
No one finished both races in the same position. In both races, Sam beat the runner whose surname was Watson. Billie Taylor came third in the second race, and Pat came last in the first race. In the second race, the athlete whose surname was Arnold won, and the athlete whose surname was Bowler came last. In the first race, Billie beat Jamie, but Jamie beat Sam.
Can you determine who finished where in each of the races?
Answer
Race1 Race2
————————————————————————
#1 Billie Sam
Taylor Arnold
————————————————————————
#2 Jamie Pat
Bowler Watson
————————————————————————
#3 Sam Billie
Arnold Taylor
————————————————————————
#4 Pat Jamie
Watson Bowler
Reasoning
The four names were: Billie, Jamie, Pat, Sam
The four contestants were: Arnold, Bowler, Taylor, Watson.
By (3), Billie Taylor came third in the second race, and Pat came last in the first race, giving:
Race1 Race2
————————————————————————
#1
————————————————————————
#2
————————————————————————
#3 Billie
Taylor
————————————————————————
#4 Pat
By (5), in the first race Billie beat Jamie, and Jamie beat Sam, giving:
Race1 Race2
————————————————————————
#1 Billie
Taylor
————————————————————————
#2 Jamie
————————————————————————
#3 Sam Billie
Taylor
————————————————————————
#4 Pat
By (2), Sam beat the runner with the surname Watson in the first race, which means that Pat's surname is Watson, giving:
Race1 Race2
————————————————————————
#1 Billie
Taylor
————————————————————————
#2 Jamie
————————————————————————
#3 Sam Billie
Taylor
————————————————————————
#4 Pat
Watson
By (1), Pat can't have also finished in last place in race 2, and by (2), Sam beat the Pat Watson, so Pat must have finished in second place in race 2. And Sam came first, therefore Jamie came last, giving:
Race1 Race2
————————————————————————
#1 Billie Sam
Taylor
————————————————————————
#2 Jamie Pat
Watson
————————————————————————
#3 Sam Billie
Taylor
————————————————————————
#4 Pat Jamie
Watson
By (4), in the second race the athlete whose surname was Arnold won, and the athlete whose surname was Bowler came last, so we know Sam and Jamie's surnames, and we can complete the grid:
Race1 Race2
————————————————————————
#1 Billie Sam
Taylor Arnold
————————————————————————
#2 Jamie Pat
Bowler Watson
————————————————————————
#3 Sam Billie
Arnold Taylor
————————————————————————
#4 Pat Jamie
Watson Bowler
??
Puzzle 3
The BrainBashers Speed Skating championship was recently completed, however, the computer storing the results suffered from a power cut!
Using the following snippets of information, can you work out who finished where, their ages (18, 21, 24, and 28), and the colour they wore?
The youngest, who didn't wear blue, won the championship. Jesse was three years younger than the person who wore red. Kelly performed well to finish in second place. Logan wore green, and Max was the oldest competitor. The person who wore yellow was younger than Kelly. The person who came last was 21.
Answer
#1 Logan Green 18
#2 Kelly Red 24
#3 Max Blue 28
#4 Jesse Yellow 21
Reasoning
By (1), the 18-year-old won the championship.
By (3), Kelly finished second.
By (6), the person who came last was 21.
#1 18
#2 Kelly
#3
#4 21
By (4), Max was the oldest competitor at 28, and can only have finished third. Which means that Kelly must have been 24.
#1 18
#2 Kelly 24
#3 Max 28
#4 21
By (2), the person who wore Red can only be 21 or 24, so Max can't have worn Red. Max didn't wear Green (4), and didn't wear Yellow (5), so Max must have worn Blue.
#1 18
#2 Kelly 24
#3 Max Blue 28
#4 21
By (5), Kelly didn't wear Yellow, and by (4) didn't wear Green, so must have worn Red.
#1 18
#2 Kelly Red 24
#3 Max Blue 28
#4 21
By (2), Jesse was 21. Which means that Logan was 18.
#1 Logan 18
#2 Kelly Red 24
#3 Max Blue 28
#4 Jesse 21
By (4), Logan wore Green. Which means that Jesse wore Yellow.
#1 Logan Green 18
#2 Kelly Red 24
#3 Max Blue 28
#4 Jesse Yellow 21
??
Puzzle 4
Which three US states have been merged together:
C O N E A L H I W J I F E R S O R O N I E Y A
