Brain Teasers
Alien Ambassadors
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?
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?
Hint
Don't get too confused with the Un-slimy bit.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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