Review of
101
Puzzles in Thought & Logic, by C. R. Wylie Jr. ISBN
0486203670
Four out of five stars
While these
puzzles are a bit challenging, they are all of the type where persistence will
always allow you to solve them if insight fails. The first section of over sixty
problems have a form similar to the following:
“In a certain bank, the positions of cashier, manager
and teller are held by Brown, Jones and Smith, although not necessarily
respectively. The teller, who was an only child, earns the least. Smith, who
married Brown's sister, earns more than the manager. What position does each
man fill?”
Making a simple
table, eliminating the obvious impossibilities first and then working through
the remaining options will fairly quickly reveal the solution.
The remaining
problems are generally alphametics. For example, number ninety-two is
SPEND
- LESS
----------
MONEY.
SPEND
- LESS
----------
MONEY.
These problems
are solved by eliminating the obvious assignments, for example, S, L, and D and
Y cannot be zero. Once these impossibilities are eliminated, moving through the
possibilities will eventually lead to a solution. Of course, some of the puzzles can be solved
more quickly if you recognize a specific relationship between the digits.
If you are
interested in mental challenges that are easy enough to always solve with
effort and hard enough to make you work for it, this is a book that will fill
that ecological niche.