A Puzzle in Honor of Leonard Nimoy

Late last week, news went out that actor, sci-fi luminary, and respected advocate for science Leonard Nimoy had passed away. As a fan of much of his work — not just Star Trek, but Fringe, In Search Of…, and numerous other shows made better by his presence — I was sad to say goodbye to such a terrific and influential figure.

And so, I thought it was only appropriate to honor him in true PuzzleNation fashion: with a Star Trek-themed brain teaser.

This puzzle was created by a University of Kentucky mathematician and puzzler named Raphael Finkel, and came to my attention thanks to a post on IO9.com. It’s a logic puzzle that will really test your deduction skills, perfect to honor pop culture’s most famous Vulcan and their great tradition of logic and reason.

Six Fearsome Heroes

Grobly Grizik is planning to write a novel fashioned after Star Trek: The Next Generation. In this novel, six of the crew members compete both at Fizzbin and at Tri-Dimensional chess. Each crew member gets two independent rankings for proficiency at these games (one ranking for each game), with “1” ranked lowest and “6” highest.

Every crew member has a personal hero among the crew, and every crew member is afraid of some crew member. Everyone is the hero of somebody, and everyone is feared by somebody. Nobody either fears him/herself nor counts him/herself as a hero. Nobody fears his/her own hero.

From the given clues, discover every crew member’s ranking at Fizzbin and at Tri-D chess, as well as whom he/she fears and whom he/she counts as a hero:

  • Geordi ranks 2 at Tri-D Chess.
  • Picard ranks two positions behind Troi at Fizzbin.
  • Troi is feared by the person Geordi fears.
  • Worf’s hero ranks 3 times lower at Tri-D Chess than the crew member who is best at Fizzbin.
  • Picard’s hero fears Geordi.
  • Data’s hero is not Geordi.
  • Data is the hero of Riker’s hero.
  • The person who is worst at Fizzbin is better than Troi at Tri-D Chess.
  • The person ranked number 3 at Tri-D Chess is ranked 4 positions higher than Data at Fizzbin.
  • Riker is feared by the person Picard fears and is the hero of Worf’s hero.
  • Riker is ranked 2 lower at Tri-D Chess than the crew member ranked 2 at Fizzbin.

Let us know if you solve this diabolical puzzle. And please share your favorite Nimoy roles and memories. He was a remarkable talent and will be missed.

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