Lisa is married to George, and their 10 year old plays with Nintendo. They like to eat at Burger King.The associations are:
Child age 4, mother Regina, Father Larry, trains, KFC
Child age 6, mother Julie, Father Steve, Pokeman, McDonalds
Child age 8, mother Marie, Father Mike, Barbie, Taco Bell
Child age 10, mother Lisa, Father George, Nintendo, Burger King
Child age 12, mother Carol, Father Bill, GI Joe, Dairy Queen
To solve, draw a grid with five rows and five columns. Across the top, above the columns, write Age, Mother, Father, Toy and Food.
Figure out the known ages and write them in order in the first column.
One child’s age is unknown at first. However, once the youngest child is discovered (the one who plays with trains) it is then known that the oldest child is the child with the unknown age.
Through additional clues, it is possible to determine that the oldest child is age 12.
Take the clue, Lisa?s child is 10. In the mother column corresponding to the age 10, you would write LISA (Maybe circle it, because it is the correct answer.) In the mother column for every other age, write “not Lisa”. Do this for each clue. If you know the answer because of a clue, write it in the appropriate column, and then be sure to write “not such and such” in all the other rows for that clue.
For example, “The youngest child plays with trains”, would result in “not trains” for any child you can tell isn?t the youngest, but you can?t write “trains” for any child, because you don?t
know which child is the youngest at first.
Eventually, you may find that “mother not Marie” is on every line except one, and then you would know that Marie is the mother on the empty line.