At last year's BrainBashers snail race, 10 fine snails completed the tabletop course.
Predictably, as per every year, the results mysteriously went missing.
However, various spectators remembered the following snippets of information:
Orange Berry lost to Zebra Wings. Zebra Wings beat Orange Berry, Frog Flippers and Apple Pie. Fizzy Pop lost to Minty Mouth, Orange Berry and CD Player. Frog Flippers beat Windy Hill, CD Player and Orange Berry. Top Hat lost to CD Player, Kipper Slippers and Apple Pie. CD Player beat Top Hat and Fizzy Pop. Apple Pie lost to Zebra Wings and Orange Berry. Kipper Slippers lost to Apple Pie and Frog Flippers. Frog Flippers beat Fizzy Pop, Minty Mouth and CD Player. CD Player lost to Frog Flippers, Kipper Slippers and Apple Pie. Top Hat beat Fizzy Pop and Windy Hill. Minty Mouth lost to Windy Hill and Orange Berry. Windy Hill lost to Apple Pie and CD Player.
Can you work out who finished where?
Hint
Who finished first? Start with Clue 2, and then Clue 4.
Answer
Zebra Wings (ZW)
Frog Flippers (FF)
Orange Berry (OB)
Apple Pie (AP)
Kipper Slippers (KS)
CD Player (CP)
Top Hat (TH)
Windy Hill (WH)
Minty Mouth (MM)
Fizzy Pop (FP)
Reasoning
If we number the clues, write each name using two letters, and rewrite the clues so that those who finished ahead are written first:
ZW beat OB.ZW beat OB, FF and AP.MM, OB and CP, all beat FP.FF beat WH, CP and OB.CP, KS and AP, all beat TH.CP beat TH and FP.ZW and OB both beat AP.AP and FF both beat KS.FF beat FP, MM and CP.FF, KS and AP, all beat CP.TH beat FP and WH.WH and OB both beat MM.AP and CP both beat WH.
By (2): ZW FF
By (4): ZW FF OB
By (7): ZW FF OB AP
By (8): ZW FF OB AP KS
By (10): ZW FF OB AP KS CP
By (5): ZW FF OB AP KS CP TH
By (11): ZW FF OB AP KS CP TH WH
By (12): ZW FF OB AP KS CP TH WH MM
By (3): ZW FF OB AP KS CP TH WH MM FP
??
Puzzle 2
What are the next five letters in this sequence:
HDSOAW
HDHAGF
ATKHAATKM
At the recent BrainBashers downhill mountain bike race, four entrants entered the challenging slalom event.
Alex finished in first position. The entrant wearing number #2 wore red, but Drew didn't wear yellow. The person in last place wore blue, and Stevie wore number #1. Glen beat Stevie, and the person who finished in second wore number #3. The entrant in yellow beat the entrant in green. Only one of the entrants wore the same number as their final position.
Can you determine who finished where, the number, and colour they each wore?
Hint
Start by looking at where Alex finished, and where the person who wore #3 finished, and then use clue (6).
Answer Pos Name Wore Colour
1 Alex #2 red
2 Glen #3 yellow
3 Stevie #1 green
4 Drew #4 blue
Reasoning
The four colours were: blue, green, red, yellow.
The four contestants were: Alex, Drew, Glen, Stevie.
By (1), Alex was first.
1 Alex
2
3
4
By (4), the person who was second wore number #3.
1 Alex
2 #3
3
4
Looking at (6):
- first place (Alex) can't have worn #1, because, by (3), Stevie wore #1
- second place wore #3
- third place can't have worn #3, because it was worn by second place
- fourth place is the only entrant who could have worn the same number as their final position
Therefore, Stevie finished in third, and Alex wore #2.
1 Alex #2
2 #3
3 Stevie #1
4 #4
By (2), Alex wore red. By (3), the person wearing blue was last.
1 Alex #2 red
2 #3
3 Stevie #1
4 #4 blue
By (5), yellow beat green.
1 Alex #2 red
2 #3 yellow
3 Stevie #1 green
4 #4 blue
By (4), Glen beat Stevie.
1 Alex #2 red
2 Glen #3 yellow
3 Stevie #1 green
4 #4 blue
Leaving Drew in last place.
1 Alex #2 red
2 Glen #3 yellow
3 Stevie #1 green
4 Drew #4 blue
