Logic puzzles

[+LDove]

Is there an easy way to solve these? I heard about a grid, but it did not help me much. Any puzzle wizards out there with suggestions?

 

P.S. I HATED THESE in school and I STILL HATE THEM , but more of them are popping up lately.

[Dinoprophet]

You mean the kind with "Alice is not sitting next to Bill", "Carl is not wearing blue" sort of facts? Yeah, the grid is really the only way to go, unfortunately, unless you want to learn how to program in Prolog.

[+LDove]

Yeah, THOSE kinds of puzzles. Even the description for Prolog sounds confusing - ha!

[Neos2]

The double grids help me. One grid for positives (could be) and one for negatives (couldn't be).

 

There are lots of sites that have helpful tips. For instance, one site suggests using the number of the clue instead of an X in the grid. That way if it doesn't work out, you know where you got the idea from in the first pace.

 

Here's one that shows you how to use the grids.

 

Some people thinks it's easier to make columns instead of grids and write down info in a list as you come to it. Then draw arrows between linking lists.

Edited October 16, 2008 by Neos2

[+niraD]

Sometimes it helps to have a grid of grids. For example, this puzzle provides (and works very nicely with) a grid of grids, which allows you to map the first names, the last names, the employers, the degrees earned, and the degrees delivered by mistake. It really depends upon how many different attributes you're trying to map.

[Clan Riffster]

Is there an easy way to solve these?

Sorry Brother! The answer on my last IQ test was "Dumber than a bag of hammers".

The only way I can solve these is to slug my way through them one data bit at a time, pulling my hair out as I go.

[+succotash]

I love logic puzzles! I find a grid is always the best way to organize the information and it is worth knowing how to create one if one is not provided for you. In some cases working back and forth between a grid and columns is very helpful. Don't tell my boss, but an extra benefit of logic puzzles is that you can work them before you head out on a roadtrip... especially great if there is a geochecker to confirm the answer!

 

Bean (the mrs.)

[Skippermark]

Sorry Brother! The answer on my last IQ test was "Dumber than a bag of hammers".

The only way I can solve these is to slug my way through them one data bit at a time, pulling my hair out as I go.

Same here. And if I lose the answer after I've solved it, I usually have to figure out how to do it all over again.

[+LDove]

This has been most helpful - I appreciate it and will use the links provided.

 

I find it reassuring that I am not the only one who pulls my hair out with these. I burned through two pencil erasers already today...

[Pup Patrol]

I love logic puzzles.

 

Try some of these from Puzzles.com

http://www.puzzles.com/Projects/LogicProblems.html

 

A sample that leads you through, step by step:

http://www.puzzlersparadise.com/article1021.html

 

Setting up your own grid is easy. I use regular graph paper.

 

Some grids you can print out:

http://www.puzzlersparadise.com/page1042.html

[+Thrak]

Not a caching puzzle but it's a classic. I used a grid and it wasn't really all that difficult.

 

Einstein's Riddle

 

 

There are 5 houses in 5 different colors. In each house lives a person with a different nationality. The 5 owners drink a certain type of beverage, smoke a certain brand of cigar, and keep a certain pet. No owners have the same pet, smoke the same brand of cigar, or drink the same beverage.

 

 

The question is: Who owns the fish?

 

 

Hints:

 

 

The Brit lives in the red house.

 

The Swede keeps dogs as pets.

 

The Dane drinks tea.

 

The green house is on the left of the white house.

 

The green homeowner drinks coffee.

 

The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds.

 

The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill.

 

The man living in the center house drinks milk.

 

The Norwegian lives in the first house.

 

The man who smokes Blend lives next to the one who keeps cats.

 

The man who keeps the horse lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill.

 

The owner who smokes Bluemaster drinks beer.

 

The German smokes prince.

 

The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.

 

The man who smokes Blend has a neighbor who drinks water.

[Pup Patrol]

I've got a cache bookmarked (somewhere) that uses a logic puzzle that is very similar to that one, Thrak.

 

It substitutes brands of cars for brands of cigars, though.

[+trainlove]

It took me 2 years to solve http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=gcr6m6

and I did try to use Prolog to solve it.

[Skippermark]

If you like logic puzzles, this one is interesting. I've been able to get part of it, but the rest looks like space ships to me.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...d5-74c0ad39869a

[+team moxiepup]

I love logic puzzles!

 

A couple of years ago, a local cacher came up with a logic puzzle that utilized other local cacher's names as characters. It was quite fun and very well received.

 

We put out a puzzle cache this past summer like the "Japanese" logic puzzles which often appear at the back of some of the popular logic puzzle magazines. They also go by the names "Hanjie", "Griddlers", "Edel", & "Nonograms" among others.

 

Griddler's Gridlock

 

They are alot of fun and are just as addictive as Sudoku, once you know how to do them.