Last week, we celebrated Thanksgiving with a social distance-themed logic puzzle in honor of this time of year and the peculiar circumstances of 2020.
So let’s take a look at how to untangle this puzzle and sort things out so everyone enjoys the holiday, shall we?
First, a quick reminder about the puzzle, so the clues are fresh in our minds (and you have one last chance to solve it before we walk you through the solution).
On a curious Thanksgiving in 2020, five housemates were social distancing, each engaged in different activities throughout the day. (One was streaming Hulu.)
Each housemate (including Brian) wore a different outfit — one was wearing a tank top and shorts — and was doing their activity at a different time that day (1 PM, 2 PM, 2:30 PM, 3 PM, or 3:30 PM).
From the information provided, can you determine what time each housemate did which activity, as well as what outfit they were wearing?
1. The person doing Zoom trivia did so earlier than Alex but later than the one who wore a t-shirt and jeans.
2. Luke’s activity was earlier in the day than Denise’s, but later than that of the person who wore a Christmas sweater and pants.
3. Alex (who was wearing a Pokemon onesie) had her activity earlier than the person texting Grandma but later than Denise.
4. The person playing Among Us did so later than the person Facetiming their Mom, but earlier than the one wearing pajamas (who did their activity earlier than Adam).
Okay, first things first, let’s organize the information we have.
- There are five housemates: Adam, Alex, Brian, Denise, Luke.
- There are five activities: Facetiming Mom, playing Among Us, streaming Hulu, texting Grandma, doing Zoom trivia.
- There are five outfits: Christmas sweater/pants, Pajamas, Pokemon onesie, Tanktop/shorts, T-shirt/jeans.
Since many of the clues reference who or what happened earlier or later than other events, it makes sense to use the times as our anchor points, so our starting grid should look like this:
And we can immediately mark down who did the activity at 1 PM. In clue 1, the person doing Zoom trivia did their activity earlier than Alex, so Alex wasn’t the person at 1 PM. Clue 2 tells us that both Luke and Denise had someone doing activities before them, so it couldn’t be them at 1 PM. And Clue 4 tells us that the person in pajamas did their activity before Adam, so he couldn’t be the 1 PM person either. That leaves Brian as the 1 PM person.
That information tells us more as well. Alex can’t be the 2 PM person, because Clue 1 says both the Zoom trivia person and the person in t-shirt and jeans did activities before Alex. Denise can’t be the 2 PM person, because Clue 2 says both Luke and the person in the Christmas sweater did activities before Denise. And Adam can’t be the 2 PM person because Clue 4 says that both the person playing Among Us and the person wearing pajamas did activities before Adam. So Luke must be the 2 PM person.
Not only that, but since Luke did his activity after the person in a Christmas sweater and pants, that makes the sweater/pants Brian’s outfit.
We can fill in one person based on time as well. Clue 3 tells us that Alex’s activity was after Denise’s, so Alex can’t be the 2:30 PM person. And Clue 4 tells us that Adam’s activity happened after the person Facetiming Mom, the person playing Among Us, and the person in their pajamas, so Adam can’t be the 2:30 PM person. That leaves Denise as the 2:30 PM person.
So now our chart looks like this:
Let’s look at the outfits now. We know from Clue 3 that Alex is wearing the Pokemon onesie, but we’re not sure where to place Alex yet. But we can place the pajamas based on what we know.
In Clue 4, we’re told that the person wearing pajamas has their activity after the person Facetiming Mom and the person playing Among Us, and before Adam. So Adam is out. Alex and Brian are also out, because we know what they’re wearing. And Luke can’t be the person in pajamas, because his activity is second (2 PM) and at least two activities have to be done before the person wearing pajamas. That leaves Denise as the person in pajamas.
That leaves only two outfits unaccounted for: the tanktop/shorts and the t-shirt/jeans. But we can eliminate those as well. In Clue 1 we’re told that the person in t-shirt and jeans does their activity before both the person doing Zoom trivia and Alex. But Adam can’t be that person, because Adam’s activity happens after the person Facetiming Mom, the person playing Among Us, and the person wearing PJs. So Adam is wearing a tanktop and shorts, and Luke is wearing a t-shirt and jeans.
Let’s look at our chart now:
As you can see, I’ve added notes below for person/outfit combos we know that we can’t yet place.
But the information above does tell us something else.
Clue 4 tells us that the person playing Among Us did so later than the person Facetiming Mom, but earlier than the person wearing pajamas. And we know the person wearing pajamas is Denise. So that means Luke is playing Among Us and Brian is Facetiming Mom.
This information also tells us what Alex is doing. Clue 1 tells us Alex is not doing Zoom trivia, and Clue 3 tells us that Alex is not texting Grandma. And since she can’t be playing Among Us or Facetiming Mom, the only remaining option is streaming Hulu.
This same process of elimination can tell us who did the last two activities. We know Denise isn’t playing Among Us, Facetiming Mom, or streaming Hulu. But Clue 3 tells us she wasn’t texting Grandma either, so she must have been doing Zoom trivia.
Which means Adam was the one texting Grandma.
And since Clue 3 tells us that Alex’s activity happened before the person texting Grandma, we can complete our grid:
How did you do? Did you manage to unravel this holiday puzzler? Let us know in the comments section below! We’d love to hear from you!
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