Q9

[ShehryarB30]

Could you please explain how to solve this one?

[ohthatpatrick]

I would start by writing down (OS), and then I would look to see if any of my other rules connect to it.

S is a floater, and O only appear in the (P O/V) rule.

It might be P O S in 1/2/3.
It might be S O P in 5/6/7.
Or it might be PV in 1/2 or VP in 6/7.

Those are four different scenarios to try! Aaaaah.

Well, the worst thing we could do here is try nothing and continue staring at our paper.

So let's just try the
P O S __ __ __ __ scenario

R is 7th.
P O S __ __ __ R

The other R has to be at least two away, so
P O S R __ __ R

Oops! This won't work, since it will leave TV next to each other.

This game has some symmetry to it, so I would imagine that flipping S O P into 5/6/7 does the same thing.

It's probably safer to try the PV or VP scenario next.
P V __ __ __ __ __

R is 7th.
P V __ __ __ __ R

I still need the other R in 3 or 4.
I need the (OS) chunk, and I have to keep T and V apart.

Okay, how about
P V R (O S) T R

Check all the rules ... looks good ... now is that the ONLY possible scenario (really, it's two scenarios since the O and S are reversible)?

Not necessarily, but as soon as we have one COULD BE TRUE scenario we can eliminate WRONG answers on a MUST BE TRUE.

Given that P V R (O S) T R is a possible scenario, do the letters surrounding (OS) have to be ....
(A) P and R? No, here they were R ant T. Eliminate.
(B) P and T? No, here they were R and T. Eliminate.
(C) R and R? No, here they were R and T. Eliminate.
(D) R and T? Keep it.
(E) R and V? No, here they were R and T. Eliminate.

So (D) is definitely correct, since the other four are provably wrong.

What makes this question feel atypically weird?
- you create one possible scenario that adheres to the new rule, and yet it's good enough to disqualify the other four answers and make it feel like this scenario HAD to be the scenario.

It didn't. We could have written a scenario like
R T (O S) R V P

But that wouldn't have changed what was surrounding O and S.

What is the biggest moral to take away from this problem?
Just keep writing scenarios in Games!
The second you're confused, write out a legal scenario. Even when it's not good enough to get you all the way to the answer, it usually helps us eliminate some answers or it helps us clarify our next option.

In this case, the first scenario we wrote blew up, so we moved onto a different strategy ("let's not do PO .... let's try PV")

And as soon as we wrote a legal scenario for PV, we had enough to get a correct answer.

Hope this helps.