Comments (17)

1. If you meant the shrimp to start with “S” then you should rename it to “shrimp basket” instead of “basket of shrimp.” “Basket of shrimp” with a “B” leads you to a different solution.

   posted by Travis on 9-17-2009 at 7:57 am

2. how do you know for sure what Gert and Hirt had?

   posted by graham on 9-17-2009 at 8:31 am

3. Graham, based on the clue about only one person having a meal that started with same letter as their first name. We know Curt either has the Chicken or Hamburger and Gert and Hirt have either Chicken, Fish, or Hamburger. Give Curt the Chicken for clue 2 then Hirt can’t have the hamburger because that starts with an H meaning he needs the fish and Gert gets the hamburger.

   posted by John L on 9-17-2009 at 8:41 am

4. Travis, you’re absolutely right. I added “basket” at the last minute (to make the text sound better) and missed the basket/Bert connection. Completely my fault.

   All fixed now. And the full solution CAN be figured out — you just have to examine the possibilities and see which one(s) could or could not work.

   posted by Sandy Wood on 9-17-2009 at 8:42 am

5. I didn’t see any problems with the clues.
   The first letter of the meal would have to refer to the actual food product, so assuming ‘basket of shrimp’ starts with an ‘S’ only seemed logical to me.
   Good wake-me-up puzzle!

   posted by J on 9-17-2009 at 8:46 am

6. Again, I have a problem with HOW the solution is arrived. When you get to the last question, it’s not so much logic and guesswork and then see if the answer works. Not my favorite way to solve logic puzzles.

   posted by KJ on 9-17-2009 at 9:03 am

7. **SPOILER ALERT**

   KJ:
   If Hirt has the Hamburger, then Curt is only left with the Chicken (because he doesn’t have seafood)….but that can’t be possible since only one meal started with the same letter as the worker who ordered it.

   posted by J on 9-17-2009 at 9:46 am

8. I miss logic puzzles…Can you replace one number question each week with one of these?

   posted by Caitlin on 9-17-2009 at 9:54 am

9. I’m old school and I use a chart. Names down the side, lunches across the top. With the first two questions, I can enter in crosses and circles to fill in the chart and discover that Burt is having the shrimp. Then when I get to the last question, I can’t fill in the chart. I have to guess between two choices: Curt/Chicken Hirt/Hamburger. That’s not logic. Once I make a guess, then I fill in the rest of the chart to see if my guess fits. Eventually, I discover one or the other but my point is that there is guesswork involved instead of straight logic. It’s not my choice when it comes to logic puzzles. Yes, I can figure it out but it’s not my preferred method of solving these puzzles.

   I LOVE LOGIC PUZZLES. I just like them to be logical :)

   posted by KJ on 9-17-2009 at 10:25 am

10. I’m not sure why logically eliminating one of two options is akin to “guesswork.” My thought was that according to rule #2, Curt could only have either chicken or hamburger, and that if he had hamburger, then no one was left that could satisfy the third rule. Thus you could negate the Curt=hamburger option in your chart.

    posted by Larchie on 9-17-2009 at 10:52 am

11. KJ – I use a chart too, and here’s how the logic works for the chart.

    SPOILER—–

    We know that Curt (this puzzle is strange for me since Curt is my actual name and Bert is what my friends call me…I would have been happy with any of the lunches!) can only have either a Chicken sandwich or a burger.

    If he has the hamburger though, then Hirt can’t have the hamburger, and therefore there is no way for ANYONE to have a lunch that starts with the first letter of their name. So Curt has to have the chicken. It IS logical after all!

    posted by Bert on 9-17-2009 at 12:02 pm

12. KJ,

    Yes, at first the last clue seems to lead to trial and error, but it can be deduced logically:

    By clue 3, either Curt has the Chicken or Hirt has the Hamburger, but not both. So one of them must have the fish. Therefore, Girt can’t have the fish, leaving Hirt holding the fish. The rest follows.

    And, no, I didn’t see that logic until after I solved it using trial and error.

    posted by Bryan on 9-17-2009 at 12:17 pm

13. Got it. Didn’t use a chart this time.

    I had to write out the possible choices for the last 3 before I could see that there was only 1 way they would work.

    At first it appeared that there would be 2 possible solutions but 1 was wrong after all.

    posted by Nerak on 9-17-2009 at 12:40 pm

14. @Bert, how was the shrimp? :)

    @KJ,

    I don’t understand how the process of elimination isn’t a logical step to solving a problem.

    The object of the puzzle is to give the solver the least amount of clues possible in order to solve it. Anymore steps added and it gets too easy. At that point, it’s not even worth doing. I think Sandy is doing a great job with these.

    posted by Steven on 9-17-2009 at 2:24 pm

15. I think you can absolutely use “logic” and not have to resort to guess work to solve (although, as someone pointed out, eliminating incorrect choices is not not logical)
    But, is using the chart method and left with the last clue, you realize Gert cannot have the fish, he must have either the chicken or the hamburger to make the clue correct; if you x out fish for gert, the rest of the answer spells itself out.

    ps: I love these sorts of puzzles!

    posted by Andi on 9-17-2009 at 4:10 pm

16. I second Caitin! I love these (and can actually figure them out!!!) Would love to see more of these! :) The clues were perfect, not too hard, but also did give me a challenge.

    posted by Drina on 9-17-2009 at 6:53 pm

17. I forgot how i figured it out after reading all the comments.
    Anyway the interesting thing is I didn’t add chicken to Gert and Hirt because I thought “chicken isn’t on a bun it’s on sliced bread.” It made the whole thing easier.

    posted by Foodie on 10-12-2009 at 12:52 pm

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