Vol 1, No 11 Answers
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ANSWER TO
by Bill Graham
Not so. There are two stumbling blocks in this puzzle. First, notice that Jan and Terry are possible names for either men or women. Second, don’t assume that the doctors and dentists are necessarily male and that the medical assistants are necessarily female.
All six names are mentioned: Bill, Jan,
Olive, Simon, Terry, and Veronica.
The last sentence tells you that B and O are married and are the family doctor and doctor's receptionist (in some order). The second sentence tells you that the dentist is T, while the first tells you that the dental assistant is J. So, T and J are married. That leaves S and V as the remaining married couple. Solving the problem now requires counting children. The total is six. One couple has three according to the final question. The remaining two couples have three. Two of the couples, dental assistant (A) and family doctor (F), have four between them. Thus, the children must be distributed as 3, 2, 1. V and T have three children between them. Tabulate the conclusions so far.
S&V + J&T = 3 children. B&O + S&V + J&T = 6 children. Three equations in three unknowns works nicely. Take any approach you'd like. Note that you also have the (redundant) information that S has more than one child. The results follow.
Bill is the father of three, and he is the doctor’s receptionist.
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My first reaction upon starting this puzzle and knowing that Elliott made
it up, was that he made a mistake. The children didn’t seem to add up
right.