Alien Ambassadors
Logic puzzles require you to think. You will have to be logical in your reasoning.
The boffins from NASA have received and decoded a digital message from the Galactic Council, informing them that four alien ambassadors from the solar system are due to visit Earth in the next 24 hours. The aliens are Agurgle from Uranus, Wym-Inar from Venus, ChimChim from Pluto and Mr. Arthur Johnson from Saturn. 24 hours later, they receive a mystery message saying that if any alien comes off the ship that is green, tentacled and slimy, then they are actually an undercover assassin from Neptune. By then, however, the aliens have all landed and are in adjacent decontamination booths, waiting to be let in to NASA Headquarters. One alien turns out to be green, tentacled and slimy!
From the clues below, who is the Neptunian Assassin?
1) Wym-Inar from Venus is the only ambassador in a booth next to exactly one tentacled alien.
2). Two of the ambassadors who are not green, are each in booths next to Agurgle from Uranus.
3) ChimChim from Pluto is the only ambassador not in a booth next to exactly one Un-slimy alien.
Who do the NASA boffins not let out of the booth?
HintDon't get too confused with the Un-slimy bit.
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Answer
ChimChim from Pluto is green, tentacled and slimy and so, is the Assassin.
Looking at clue 2 we know that both the ambassadors standing next to Agurgle from Uranus are not green. Also, from the body of the teaser, we also know only one alien is green, tentacled and slimy. So there are two deductions to be made: (Note the key is - Alien (Green, Tentacled, Un-Slimey). Where "Y" stands for Yes and "N" stands for No. "?" denotes unknown, and each set of braces[] indicates a booth)
Either Deduction A
[ N, ?, ?] [Agurgle from Uranus Y, Y, N] [ N, ?, ?] [ ?, ?, ?]
Or Deduction B
[N, ?, ?] [Agurgle from Uranus ?, ?, ?][ N, ?, ?] [Y, Y, N]
You can see that either Agurgle from Uranus or the alien at the extreme right hand booth is green, tentacled and slimy.
Now taking clue 3, you can work out that ChimChim from Pluto's booth is next to a slimy alien AND each of the other aliens' booths are next to precisely one slimy alien.
So, based on the first set of deductions, you can infer the following.
Deduction A (ii):
[ChimChim from Pluto N, ?, N] [Agurgle from Uranus Y, Y, N] [N, ?, Y] [?, ?, Y]
Or Deduction B (ii):
[N, ?, Y] [Agurgle from Uranus ?, ?, Y][ N, ?, N] [ChimChim from Pluto Y, Y, N]
You can then use clue 1 to eliminate one of these deductions: Wym-Inar from Venus is the only alien in a booth next to exactly one tentacled alien. But in Deduction A(ii), ChimChim from Pluto's booth is next to exactly one tentacled alien. Therefore, Deduction A (ii) is not possible and Deduction B (ii) is the correct one.
Deduction B (ii):
[N, ?, Y] [Agurgle from Uranus ?, ?, Y][ N, ?, N] [ChimChim from Pluto Y, Y, N]
So, looking again at clues 2 and 3, there are a further 2 possible deductions to be made.
Deduction A (iii)
[Mr. Arthur Johnson from Saturn N, N, Y] [Agurgle from Uranus] [?, N, Y] [Wym-Inar from Venus N, N, N][ChimChim from Pluto Y, Y, N]
Deduction B (iii)
[Wym-Inar from Venus N, N, Y][Agurgle from Uranus ?, Y, Y][Mr. Arthur Johnson from Saturn N, N, N][ChimChim from Pluto Y, Y, N]
So, ChimChim from Pluto is green, tentacled and slimy, and is therefore our Neptunian Assassin.
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Comments
highiq151
Sep 27, 2003
| It all works out and it's very creative, I like it but it's a bit too complicated, good one though. :C) |
faeriedreams
Sep 27, 2003
| Very boring but work harder.
|
thetrickster
Oct 01, 2003
| You can't beat a good Uranus pun! lol |
timmyboym 
Oct 30, 2003
| The Alien Ambassadors teaser is a pretty good one. I think you might have spent a bit too much time writing the answer.   
This is one of the most complicated teasers I have read. |
pschnaz17
Jul 15, 2004
| The answer is WRONG, or rather it's incomplete. Here's another scenario:
Wym-Inar[not green, not tentacled, slimy]; Agurg[GREEN, TENTACLED and SLIMY]; Arthur J[not green, not tentacled, not slimy]; Chim Chim[?, tentacled, not slimy].
As one can see the rules still fit: Wym-Inar is the only one next to EXACTLY ONE tentacled alien (Agurgle and Chim Chim are next to zero, Arthur J is next to two). The two ambassadors next to Agurgle are green. And Chim Chim is the only one not in a booth next to EXACTLY ONE un-slimy alien (Arthur J is next to Chim Chim who is not slimy and Agurgle who is slimy; Agurgle is next to Arthur J who is not slimy and Wym-Inar who is slimy; Wym-Inar is only next to Agurgle who is slimy). |
netgoof
May 11, 2005
| pschnaz17, your scenario doesn't work. "Chim Chim is the only one not in a booth next to EXACTLY ONE un-slimy alien." In your scenario, Chim Chim IS next to exactly one un-slimy alien (but he shouldn't be). Also, Wym-Inar is only next to Agurgle who is slimy, but Wym-Imar needs to be next to exactly one un-slimy alien. |
Nytwynd  
Nov 08, 2005
| Oookay. i don't know how it happened but I got the answer. I guessed it correctly  |
zonarita
Mar 22, 2006
|  I really liked that you took the time to explain how you come to a conclusion. |
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