Congratulations to Peter Krismer for being the first one to correctly answer this week’s puzzle. Thanks to everyone who sent in an answer and for the great feedback. Special GeekDad kudos to Torben Rybner who was so pressed for time that he wrote a Perl script to solve the puzzle in .11 seconds! Puzzle and answer after the jump.
You are a detective hired to apprehend a very weird individual who is trafficking illegal creatures. He has retreated to a very weird street with five houses. How will you find him? Luckily, your brilliant detective work has gathered enough clues for you to catch your perp.
1. The Andorian lives in the red house.
2. The Egyptian keeps dogs as pets.
3. The Scot drinks tea.
4. The green house is on the left of the white house.
5. The green house owner drinks finagle’s folly
6. The person who uses Ubuntu rears finches.
7. The owner of the yellow house uses Mac OS.
8. The man living in the house right in the center drinks tranya.
9. The Canadian lives in the first house.
10. The man who favors Linux lives next to the one who keeps tribbles.
11. The man who keeps reptiles lives next to the man who uses Mac OS.
12. The owner who uses the Unix shell drinks Romulan ale.
13. The Halkan uses Windows.
14. The Canadian lives next to the blue house.
15. The man who uses Linux has a neighbor who drinks pan-galactic gargle blaster.
You are searching for the outlaw who owns a mugato. It is clear as crystal to you who that is and where he lives. Who owns the mugato?
Answer: The Halkan owns the mugato. He lives in the fourth house, which is green, drinks finagle’s folly and swears by Windows. You swoop in and bring him to justice.
The solution is achieved by constructing a simple grid/table and narrowing your choices. Your final table should look something like this:
