Sandy Wood
Brain Game: Who’s Buying Lunch?
by Sandy Wood - August 11, 2009 - 7:30 AM

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Today’s Brain Game is a 5x5x5 logic puzzle with a little twist – one of the sets of matches aren’t provided in advance; you’ll have to figure them out yourself. Enjoy!

Five men – Bub, Dub, Nub, Tub, and Wub – were working at a construction site. None of them had brought lunch, so the men decided that they’d each draw a regular playing card from a standard deck of 52. The one of them to draw the lowest card would have to walk down the street to buy sandwiches for the others. The “loser” drew a 4, while the other men drew a 7, 8, 10, and Queen.

 Based on the following four clues, your goal is to determine which man drew which card – both value and suit. Good luck!

1. None of the five men drew a Club, but all other suits were represented with either one or two cards.

2. Dub’s card was three numbers higher than Wub’s card, and these two cards belonged to the same suit.

3. One man (not Nub) drew the Eight of Diamonds; it was the only card of its suit to be drawn.

4. The number on Bub’s Spade was a single-digit, even number.

Here is the SOLUTION.
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Comments (18)

  1. i think i got it, but the solution is still from yesterday. great quiz, it got the brain going.

    posted by grant on 8-11-2009 at 7:56 am

  2. Thanks, Grant. It’s fixed now… our system notoriously rejects it sometimes when I alter the answer link.

    posted by Sandy Wood on 8-11-2009 at 8:05 am

  3. At first glance I thought there were 2 possible solutions but as I wrote it down I could see that only 1 fit. Very good. But who got the BLT?

    posted by KevinGa on 8-11-2009 at 8:15 am

  4. i confused myself in the process but i got it!

    posted by dee on 8-11-2009 at 9:05 am

  5. This one wasn’t that bad. The answer can be found with just two of those clues. With one of those clues, you don’t even need some of the information given.

    posted by Steven on 8-11-2009 at 9:31 am

  6. I thought Clue #3 might be unnecessary, but decided to include it anyway since this was the first time I’d attempted a logic puzzle in which some of the matches (the card suits) weren’t specifically provided.

    posted by Sandy Wood on 8-11-2009 at 10:07 am

  7. All you need are the last two, and then it’s simple elimination at that point. Clue 4 gave too much away.

    posted by Steven on 8-11-2009 at 11:22 am

  8. I’m not sure how you can figure it out with just the last two clues. I think you need to know that no one draws a club. It must be hard to figure out how much information to give out.

    posted by Diana on 8-11-2009 at 11:54 am

  9. Clue 4: Bub pulled a single digit even number, and it’s a spade. With that information, you know that it’s either going to be the 4 or 8. Now you have to look for another clue that mentions either number. Clue 3 mentions that someone else (not Bub because we know he didn’t, and Nub apparently) pulled an 8 (diamond and how many of that suit pulled is fluff info). With that little bit of information, and process of elimination, you have your answer.

    reCaptcha: manly bling (oxymoron?)

    posted by Steven on 8-11-2009 at 12:10 pm

  10. …wait…my apologies. I was just pointing out who was buying lunch. hahaha

    posted by Steven on 8-11-2009 at 12:15 pm

  11. YESSSS!!! I got it right!!! All that time in math class doing logic puzzles paid off!

    posted by Alysha on 8-11-2009 at 12:57 pm

  12. I think that Clue #3 is required to ensure there is only one answer. Without it I don’t think it’s possible to determine the suit on Nub’s Queen.

    posted by Thomas on 8-11-2009 at 1:05 pm

  13. Is there a different name for these types of puzzles? I keep trying to Google 5x5x5 logic puzzles to try more but I can’t seem to find any…

    posted by Nadia on 8-11-2009 at 1:07 pm

  14. Nadia, they’re generically known as “logic puzzles.”

    The numbers (like “5x5x5″ or “4×4″) indicate how many matches there are to solve in the puzzle. In this one, there were five men, five cards, and five suits that had to be identified, thus 5x5x5. But logic puzzles come in various sizes. The smallest ones are usually 4×4.

    posted by Sandy Wood on 8-11-2009 at 1:58 pm

  15. I’m with Thomas, is it possible to determine the suite of the Queen? I actually just guessed and was lucky enough to be right. Based off the clues it seems as if the Queen can either be a Spade or a Heart

    posted by NateJ on 8-11-2009 at 2:47 pm

  16. NateJ: The Queen can only be a spade because of clue number 1 which stated that the other suits were represented by 1 or 2 cards. Since Bub got the 4 of spades and Dub and Wub had the same suit (hearts since making it a spade would give 3 spades) making the queen a heart would give 3 hearts total.

    posted by Fran on 8-11-2009 at 3:46 pm

  17. I think that it worked out just fine with the information given being neither too much or too little.

    You can buy a magazine full of these Logic Problems of various sizes and difficulties typically 5x5x5x5 with between 4 – 7 clues and usually a grid in which to work out the solution.

    For me, it’s nice to have one a little simpler to do on paper.

    posted by Nerak on 8-11-2009 at 4:17 pm

  18. Wait, people do these in their heads? That’s some real mental floss work there…

    Just the right amount of info – how about a 6x6x6?

    posted by Chris on 8-12-2009 at 5:41 am

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