Index

The Pet Detective  

You have been promoted to pet detective while Ace Ventura guides some tourists on a safari. From the following clues, you must figure out who is the owner of each pet, and where the pet got lost.

1. A rabbit and a dog are two of the lost pets.
2. The pet lost in the garden is owned by Mary.
3. Robert does not own a dog.
4. John's pet was lost in the woods.
5. The cat was not lost in the woods or in the park.

I. Read the complete problem:
Get a general idea of the problem. Here we have 3 owners, 3 pets, and 3 locations. You are being asked to match each pet with an owner and a location. A 3×3 table, also called a logic matrix, can be used to organize this information.

II. Make a list of the members of each category:
Owners: Mary, Robert, John
Pets: rabbit, dog, cat
Places: park, garden, woods

III. Start filling the table with information from the clues.

The clues may provide direct or deduced information and can be processed in any order. We start by putting the owner names in the top row. Here, we start with clue number 2:

2. The pet lost in the garden is owned by Mary.

Owners	Mary	John	Robert
Pets
Places	garden

5. The cat was not lost in the woods or in the park.
Therefore, the cat must have been lost in the garden.

Owners	Mary	John	Robert
Pets	cat
Places	garden

4. John's pet was lost in the woods.
... and, therefore, Robert's pet must have been lost in the park.

Owners	Mary	John	Robert
Pets	cat
Places	garden	woods	park

1. A rabbit and a dog are two of the lost pets.
3. Robert does not own a dog.
This means that Robert owns the rabbit, and John must own the dog.

Owners	Mary	John	Robert
Pets	cat	dog	rabbit
Places	garden	woods	park

Congratulations! You now qualify as a pet detective.

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