Analysis of House Members - Mystery Master
Scroll To Bottom Mystery Master Analysis of House Members Member

HouseMembers

This five-star logic puzzle has 5 noun types, 5 nouns per type, 6 links, 31 facts, and no rules. What makes this puzzle interesting is that I use links (and facts) instead of rules to examine the years in office. The years are: 24, 16, 12, 8, and 4. Take a look at the first two clues.

  1. Rep. Van Horn and the 1st District representative have together served as many years as Shirley and the St. Mary's City representative together.
  2. The representative from Gravesend has served as many years as Rep. Kaplan and the 3rd District representative together.

Clue 1

To satisfy the first clue, the sum of the years for Van Horn and the 1st District representative (pair 1) must equal the sum for Shirley and the St. Mary's City representative (pair 2). The combinations that work are 24 + 4 = 16 + 12 (in some order), and 16 + 4 = 12 + 8 (in some order). So the sums are either 28 or 20. If we look at grid for the link together-clue1a, here are the valid combinations for noun1 and noun2:

(24, 4), (16, 12), (16, 4), (12, 16), (12, 8), (8, 12), (4, 24), (4, 16)

Here are some scenarios this link gives answers to.

While solving this puzzle, the program will determine the following.

  1. Van Horn is not 12. This was entered via a Law examining mark 14. Note: The laws will eventually examine this mark.
  2. The 1st District representative is not 12. This was entered via Law 3 on mark 19.
  3. Van Horn is not 8. This was entered via a Law examining mark 20 and fact 7 (which uses our link).
  4. The 1st District representative is not 8. This should really be attributed to mark 19.

The final possibilities are now (24, 4), (16, 4), (4, 24), (4, 16). Note that fact 8 uses this link as well for Shirley and the St. Mary's City representative.

There is another link we need to examine, together-clue1b. This link is used to examine the years for the following combinations: Van Horn and Shirley, Van Horn and the St. Mary's City representative, the District 1 representative and Shirley, and the District 1 and St. Mary's City representatives. Here are the valid combinations for this link:

(24, 16), (24, 12), (16, 24), (16, 12), (16, 8), (16, 4), (12, 24), (12, 16), (12, 4), (8, 16), (8, 4), (4, 16), (4, 12), (4, 8)
Think of our equation where Van Horn and the 1st District representative are on the left-hand side, and Shirley and the St. Mary's City representative are on the right-hand side.

  1. If 24 is on the left, then 16 and 12 must be on the right.
  2. If 16 is on the left, then 24, 12, 8, 4 may be on the right.
  3. If 12 is on the left, then 24, 16, 4 may be on the right.
  4. If 8 is on the left, then 16, 4 must be on the right.
  5. If 4 is on the left, then 16, 12, 8 may be on the right.

These two links are used by facts 7 - 12.

Clue 2

This clue also involves two links, together-clue2a and together-clue2b, which are used by facts 13 - 15. See if you can understand how these links work.