Magazine Mixup
Home Up Practice Makes Perfect

The Incredible Magazine 
Mix-up Logic Puzzle!


Contributed by Myron Janzen,
Math teacher at Duchesne Academy
in Houston, Texas


Jeffrey Jefferson delivers mail for the Post Office. His delivery route includes the posh 10-story Memorial Park Apartment House.

There are 10 families which reside at this building (one family per floor). Each family gets 3 different publications a day. The delivery schedule to the Apartment House includes 10 different magazines in all. 

Each magazine has a very goofy name and it is unlikely you have ever heard of any of them, but why let that spoil a good puzzle? 

Here are the names of the five monthly magazines and five weekly magazines:

The 5 Monthly Magazines

The 5 Weekly Magazines

  1. The Hula Hoopist 
  2. Tic-Tac-Toe Review
  3. The Yo-Yo Fancier
  4. The Tobacco Spitter
  5. The Snipe Hunter 
  1. The Hopscotch Advocate 
  2. The Telephone Booth Stuffer
  3. The Potato Sack Racer 
  4. The Shuffleboarder 
  5. The Pie Eater


Unfortunately for Jeff, it rained today. When he began pulling the magazines from his not-too-waterproof sack, he found all the labels stuck together in a gummy mess. Undaunted, Jeff sat down in the lobby to figure out which magazines to stuff into the mailboxes of the following families: 

The Ten Families

Can you determine which floor 
each family lives on? 

1.  The Altmans
2.  The Becks
3.  The Clarks
4.  The Donovans
5.  The Engels
6.  The Falks
7.  The Gardiners
8.  The Hansens
9.  The Ibsens
10.  The Judsons


Although it is important to remember that each of the ten periodicals has three subscribers among the residents of the Memorial Park Apartments, please note that no two families get more than ONE magazine in common.

Jeff also remembered that each family subscribes to either two monthlies and a weekly or two weeklies and a monthly.  

Inasmuch as each family occupies an entire floor by themselves, by close examination of the following clues you can determine which family lives on which floor as well as the three magazines each family receives. Here are the 16 remaining facts that Jeffrey Jefferson was sure about:


1. The families on the 1st and 10th floors, as well as the Clarks, all get The Tobacco Spitter.
2. The Hansens and the Gardiners, as well as the family on the 10th floor, subscribe to The Pie Eater.
3. The families who get The Shuffleboarder all live on odd-numbered floors.
4. The Becks, who live directly above the Hansens, subscribe to The Tic-Tac-Toe Review, The Tobacco Spitter, and The Pie Eater
5. The families that subscribe to The Telephone Booth Stuffer all live on even-numbered floors.
6. None of the families above the 6th floor gets The Hopscotch Advocate.
7. The Falks, who get The Telephone Booth Stuffer plus two monthlies, live directly above the Engels, whose subscriptions include The Yo-Yo Fancier and the The Potato Sack Racer.
8. Among the families on floors 1, 2, and 3 (one of whom is the Donovans), one gets the The Hopscotch Advocate, another gets the The Shuffleboarder, while one of the remaining weeklies is subscribed to by all three families. 
9. The Ibsens live directly above the family that subscribes to The Tobacco Spitter, The Hula Hoopist, and The Hopscotch Advocate.
10. The Judsons, whose subscriptions include The Snipe Hunter and The Hopscotch Advocate, live directly above and below families who receive The Potato Sack Racer.
11. Subscribers to The Yo-Yo Fancier are the Altmans and the family on the 8th floor, and also the family whose other subscriptions are for The Tic-Tac-Toe Review and The Potato Sack Racer
12. The same monthly goes to the Judsons and the family on the 7th floor, and also to the family whose other subscriptions are for The Hula Hoopist and The Telephone Booth Stuffer.
13. The family on the 5th floor subscribes to The Tobacco Spitter, The Hula Hoopist, and The Hopscotch Advocate
14. The Falks do NOT subscribe to The Tic-Tac-Toe Review, The Yo-Yo Fancier, or The Tobacco Spitter
15. The same monthly goes to the Ibsens, the Becks, and also the family on the 
3rd floor.
16. The Hansens do NOT receive The Tic-Tac-Toe Review, The Yo-Yo Fancier, or The Tobacco Spitter


Editor's Note: 
The Magazine Mix-up Puzzle isn't all that hard, but it is very long.  There is a lot of information to keep track of.  It took me about two hours to solve it.   Send your answers to Rick Archer, dance@ssqq.com 

 
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