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ANSWER: Ricky ate the spaghetti, Lucy the pizza, Ethel the steak, and Fred the pork chops. Here’s the logic:
1. When Ricky got tomato sauce on his tie, so he ate either the pizza or the spaghetti. He couldn’t have eaten the pizza, since Fred then would have eaten the pork chop, which would throw the seating off (since we know that each person sat next to his/her best friend). So Ricky at the spaghetti.
2. If Fred had eaten the pizza, since his best friend (Ricky) was on his right side, Ethel (his wife) would have to be on his left. That wouldn’t work, since we know Ethel was sitting to the left of Lucy, not to the left of Fred. So Fred must have eaten the pork chop.
3. That leaves the pizza and steak, and since we know Ethel sat to Lucy’s left, Ethel had the steak, and Lucy had the pizza.
Comments (17)
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Maybe ricky was trying to get a piece of pizza from someone and got a stain :)
posted by jason on 7-23-2008 at 6:46 am
Fred could have eaten the Pizza And Lucy the Pork Chops. They would still be sitting next to their best friend.
posted by DJ on 7-23-2008 at 6:57 am
“….we know Ethel was sitting to the left of Lucy, not to the left of Fred.”
How do we know this? I believe you can put Fred at the Pork Chop or the pizza and fulfill your criteria.
posted by Bob on 7-23-2008 at 7:02 am
Ricky=Spaghetti
Lucy=Pork Chops
Ethel=Steak
Fred=Pizza
Also works
posted by DJ on 7-23-2008 at 7:02 am
I don’t understand why we “know” that Ethyl was sitting to the left of Lucy and couldn’t sit to the left of Fred.
What did I miss?
I got that Ricky ate Spaghetti, Lucy had the Pork Chop, Ethyl the Steak and Fred the Pizza.
posted by Brad on 7-23-2008 at 7:14 am
So I got Ricki eating spaghetti and Ethel eating steak, but I switched fred and lucy and it still works with the rules. Everyone’s sitting next their spouse and best friend and fred’s got the P, and Ricki has the spaghetti. The clue doesn’t say specifically WHICH side people are sitting on, so Lucy and Fred are interchangable aren’t they?
posted by Tricia on 7-23-2008 at 7:21 am
I got two possible answers.
1) Based on the 1st and 3rd clues, there are 3 possible seating arrangments: Ricky – Spag and Fred – Pork / Ricky – Pizza and Fred – Pork / Ricky – Spag and Fred – Pizza. Ricky and Fred can’t both be at the pizza plate.
2) Based on the 2nd clue about seating next to your spouse/friend, Ricky – Pizza and Fred – Pork doesn’t work because they are not next to each other. That leaves two viable alternatives, each fitting the clues given. Ricky and Ethel sit across from each other and Lucy and Fred sit across from each other.
posted by KJ on 7-23-2008 at 7:25 am
Where do you get “We know that Ethel was sitting to the left of Lucy.” It doesn’t specify which directions anyone was sitting relative to another, just that certain people must be sitting next to each other.
posted by Dan on 7-23-2008 at 7:38 am
NOTE: My bad, folks. I left the final clue off of the puzzle while leaving it in the explanation. It’s fixed now.
My apologies; I’m fairly new to the coming-up-with-logic-games scenario. It was never my favorite puzzle type, but I’m learning!
posted by Sandy on 7-23-2008 at 7:44 am
With the full clues it’s a fun logic game. I haven’t had a chance to do one of those in a while. Thanks!
posted by Amy S. on 7-23-2008 at 8:04 am
Thanks, Amy, I appreciate that. Frankly, while I have “testers” who go over most of my other puzzles, I had a hard time finding anyone who enjoyed logic puzzles enough to test them.
And, as I’ve said many times since starting with mental_floss nearly six years ago, even though our goal is to help readers “feel smart again,” as often as not, we’re the ones who get the education!
posted by Sandy on 7-23-2008 at 8:30 am
Sandy, I LOVE Logic puzzles. Keep ‘em coming.
posted by KJ on 7-23-2008 at 8:54 am
I love the idea of daily puzzles, but the fact that most of these don’t take much longer than just reading them to solve kind of takes the fun out of it
posted by nightstraveler on 7-23-2008 at 11:06 am
Took me all of 10 seconds to get but it was 10 seconds of fun anyway. :)
posted by Steve S on 7-23-2008 at 12:38 pm
It took me longer than 10 seconds but these are still my favorite ones! How would you feel about leaving all the word puzzles and replacing all the math ones with logic games? Just something to chew on…
posted by Caitlin on 7-23-2008 at 1:02 pm
Logic puzzles are favorite favorite! Keep ‘em coming!
posted by Orange on 7-23-2008 at 1:05 pm
i enjoy all your puzzles regardless of whether i get the answer or not.
posted by maliu on 7-23-2008 at 9:33 pm