Q16

[vincent.m]

Hi,

Again just need help with this one, I have no idea, but I think it is because of my diagram.

[SamanthaW170]

I've been able to arrive at the answer being E by trying a ton of different orders of elements and by peeking at the diagram in the answers in the book. However - I don't really understand what would have been the correct way to approach a problem like this.

I was thinking that since QRS can't touch and that's a large portion of the board, I'd write out mini-frames like Q_R_S_ _, _Q_R_S_, etc. It wasn't until looking at the answer that I realized R sort of has to be relegated to a side, since it can't touch G, which is ultimately forced towards the middle if F and G can't touch and also can't touch both V and W.

This got a little bit messy and time consuming, though. What would have been the easier approach? Was there an inference to be made?

[ohthatpatrick]

It's been a long time since I've played this, but I remember it being a hard game, so it's possible there's no good answer, and this is just a tough question.

I would react to the condition that "same type can't be adjacent" by initially not caring about F G Q R S V W and only thinking about p's, L's, and i's. (professors, lecturers, instructors)

If the three L's have to be split up, that already claims 5 spaces (two things needed to buffer the three L's apart from each other).

We'll be buffering the L's with either i's or p's.
L - i/p - L - i/p - L

Because rule 1 precludes us from ever having i's and p's next to each other, we also need these L's to buffer the remaining two i/p's from each other.

So we're essentially stuck with
i/p - L - i/p - L - i/p - L - i/p
That's the only way to keep members of the same rank away from each other.

But there's more! Given rule 2, that p's can't be on either bookend, it actually has to go
i - L - p - L - p - L - i

I would go to the answers at this point, since knowing the order of rank has to be
i - L - p - L - p - L - i
should help us interpret the answers.

(A) F is a p, so F would be in 103 or 105.
(B) Q is an L, so Q would be in 102, 104, or 106
(C) R is an L, so R would be in 102, 104, or 106
(D) S is an L, so S would be in 102, 104, or 106
(E) Yes. V is an i, so V would be in 101 or 107

TAKEAWAY: since the "if" condition they give us isn't about specific characters, instead it's about the 2nd layer info about their job rank, you want to focus your thinking only on what this means for the arrangement of professors, lecturers, and instructors.