Math Is Fun Forum

excelerator

Member

Registered: 2022-10-12

Posts: 1

four-people-travel-solution

(Apologies if this is some kind of a repost or the wrong place or whatever - I did search for a thread on it before I started a new topic.)

https://www.mathsisfun.com/puzzles/four-people-travel-solution.html

I thought this was funny - the way it is written

Four people are traveling to different places on different types of transport.
Their names are: Rachel, John, Mr. Jones and Cindy.
They either went on train, car, plane or ship.
• Mr. Jones hates flying
• Cindy has to rent her vehicle
• John gets seasick
How did they each travel?

It took me a few minutes but then I came up with ONE answer (not 3 as in the solution).

Cindy rented the car, obvs.

Then I stalled, I had Mr. Jones NOT plane and I had John NOT ship (I didn't know there could be 3 answers).

But then I re-read "John gets seasick" as "John gets seasick" ... so he was on the ship!

Which then means the single answer is:

Cindy Car
John Ship
Mr. Jones Train
Rachel Plane.

Bob

Administrator

Registered: 2010-06-20

Posts: 10,618

Re: four-people-travel-solution

hi excelerator

Welcome to the forum.

It took me a while to track it down but I raised this issue early on in my MIF membership.

http://www.mathisfunforum.com/viewtopic.php?id=14426

The question is poorly worded as 'gets seasick' could have two very different meanings.  On reflection, I like your version and it is more satisfying as it leads to a single answer.

Happy puzzling!

Bob

---

Children are not defined by school ...........The Fonz
You cannot teach a man anything;  you can only help him find it within himself..........Galileo Galilei
Sometimes I deliberately make mistakes, just to test you!  …………….Bob

imcute

Member

Registered: 2022-09-28

Posts: 176

Re: four-people-travel-solution

enumeration
1=rachel 2=john 3=jones 4=cindy
train car plane ship
3 not on third place
4 not on second place
2 not on 4th place
1 2 3 4x
1 2 4 3
1 4 2 3x
1 4 3 2x
1 3 2 4
1 3 4 2x
2 1 3 4x
2 1 4 3
2 4 1 3x
2 4 3 1x
2 3 1 4
2 3 4 1
3 2 1 4
3 2 4 1
3 4 2 1x
3 4 1 2x
3 1 2 4
3 1 4 2x
4 1 3 2x
4 1 2 3
4 2 1 3
4 2 3 1x
4 3 1 2x
4 3 2 1
so there are 12 solutions

MathLover01

Novice

Registered: 2023-05-18

Posts: 2

Re: four-people-travel-solution

Based on the clues provided, we can deduce the following:

Mr. Jones hates flying, which means he did not take a plane.
Cindy had to rent her vehicle, which means she did not take a ship (since ships cannot be rented casually).
John gets seasick, which means he did not travel by ship.
Considering these facts and the options available (train, car, plane, ship), we can derive the following:

Mr. Jones must have travelled by train or car, but since Cindy had to rent her vehicle, we can deduce that she rented a car, hence Mr. Jones took the train.
Cindy rented a vehicle, which as deduced earlier, must have been a car.
John did not travel by ship due to his seasickness, and since the plane and car options are already taken, he must have travelled by train.
Rachel, as the last person, took the only remaining option, which is the ship.
So, to summarize:

Mr. Jones travelled by train.
Cindy travelled by car.
John travelled by train.
Rachel travelled by ship.