Myers Depot Metal Detectors

A Logic Puzzle for Detectorists... Can You Solve It?

PlasteredDragon

PlasteredDragon

Elite Member
Joined
May 6, 2014
Messages
627
Location
Central Massachusetts
Five metal detectorists each went to a different location for a two day hunt. Each used a different detector, and found a unique treasure. Each also found a different amount of modern clad coins, which added up to $47 total when they got together afterward to compare finds. Using the clues given, identify each detectorist's first and last name, what detector they used, where they hunted, what unique treasure they found, and how much clad each one recovered.

I have supplied a graph to help you but you don't have to use it if you don't want to. The graph lists all of the names, detectors, locations, and treasure finds.

NOTE: the river is fresh water, and both the beach hunter and the river hunter hunted in the water.

I will post a solution next Saturday if nobody has solved it by then.

CLUES:

1. Kirkland found less clad during his beach hunt than anyone else, only a third of what Terry found during his hunt on the trail.

2. The man with the Tesoro found half as much clad as the farm hunter, and wore waders during his hunt to keep dry.

3. The coin Chris found was newer than the coin found with the White's detector.

4. McMahon couldn't believe his eyes when that Gold Indian came up out of the muck on the river bottom.

5. The trime was found in a park.

6. The man with the Minelab did no water detecting, and found $1 less in clad than Langley.

7. The person using the Fisher did not find a silver treasure.

8. Felix was not on the beach.

9. The Spanish coin was found on a farm.

10. Even though Riggs found an older coin, he still envied the lady who found the trime.

11. The Fisher performed well in the salt water.

12. Wooten and her Garrett turned up twice as much clad as Barbara and her White's.

 
It was the "Butler" in the Library....:laughing:
For all you youngsters, that was from the board game "Clue"...oh nevermind..:lol:
 
Just gave it a go and realised when I was calculating the clad amounts, I screwed up on the main puzzle. :( Oh well, tomorrow's still a day... Great job ffgrizzley! :)
 
Thanks for such a challenging puzzle !

For those who have finished that one, and/or want a puzzle a little less challenging to give your mind a rest, here ya are :lol:

(you can "right click" on the picture below and choose "save picture as" to download and print it out if you wish)
md_puzzle.jpg
 
I appreciate the effort you put it to that, but I have not had enough coffee yet to even attempt solving that...
 
Five Detectorists -- The Solution!

Congrats to those that solved the puzzle, here's one path to the solution (though there are many):

THE CLUES:
  1. Kirkland found less clad during his beach hunt than anyone else, only a third of what Terry found during his hunt on the trail.
  2. The man with the Tesoro found half as much clad as the farm hunter, and wore waders during his hunt to keep dry.
  3. The coin Chris found was newer than the coin found with the White's detector.
  4. McMahon couldn't believe his eyes when that Gold Indian came up out of the muck on the river bottom.
  5. The trime was found in a park.
  6. The man with the Minelab did no water detecting, and found $1 less in clad than Langley.
  7. The person using the Fisher did not find a silver treasure.
  8. Felix was not on the beach.
  9. The Spanish coin was found on a farm.
  10. Even though Riggs found an older coin, he still envied the lady who found the trime.
  11. The Fisher performed well in the salt water.
  12. Wooten and her Garrett turned up twice as much clad as Barbara and her White's.

SOLUTION PART ONE:

Before trying to figure out how much clad each detectorist found, we really need to figure out the first and last name of each detectorist, where they hunted, what detector they used and what treasure they found. Let's do that in part one.

  • S1: Identifying the genders of the detectorists will be very helpful. One of the first names, Barbara, is female. Of the remaining names only Chris and Terry might be female. From #1 we know that Terry is male, but from #12 we know that there are at least 2 women. Reasonably there are no women named Andrew or Felix, which means that Chris is a woman.
  • S2: From #12 we know that Wooten is a woman, and Wooten is not Barbara, therefore Chris is Wooten, and Chris uses a Garrett.
  • S3: #10 tells us the trime was found by a lady, so only Barbara or Chris could have found it. Further, since the trime was found in a park, only Barbara or Chris could have hunted in the park.
  • S4: #1 tells us Kirkland is male, #4 tells us McMahon is male, #10 tells us Riggs is male, that leaves only Langley, so therefore Langley is female, and therefore must be Barbara's surname. Which means Langley uses the White's (#12).
  • S5: Based on S3 and S4, we know only Langley or Wooten found the trime, and only Langley or Wooten hunted a Park.
  • S6: #1 tells us Kirkland hunted a beach, #4 tells us McMahon hunted a river, #1 tells us that Terry hunted a trail. S1 tells us Terry is male and there are only two women. S4 tells us they are Langley and Wooten. That leaves Riggs, and therefore Riggs must be the man who hunted a trail, and therefore Riggs is Terry.
  • S7: From S2, S4, and S6 we know that Kirland and McMahon are either Andrew or Felix. From #1 we know Kirkland hunted a beach, and from #8 we know Felix didn't. Therefore Andrew is Kirkland, and Felix is McMahon. We now have paired all first names and surnames.
  • S8: From S6 and S7 we know that the Farm and the Park were hunted by Barbara or Chris. From #5 we know that the trime was found in the Park, and from #9 we know that the Reale was found on the farm. Therefore only Barbara and Chris can be the finders of these coins. From #12 we know Barbara used the White's, and from #3 we know that Chris found a newer coin than the coin found with the White's. Therefore Chris found the 1851 Trime in the Park, and Barbara found the 1769 Reale on the Farm.
  • S9: From #11 we know the Fisher was used on the Beach, from #1 we therefore know it was used by Kirkland. From #2 we know the Tesoro was used on a water hunt, and from #4 we know that this would be McMahon in the River. From #12 we know Wooten uses the Garret and from #12 and S4 we know Langley uses the White's. That leaves Riggs as the Minelab user, which means (#1) the Minelab was used on the trail. We now know who used each detector and where.
  • S10: Other than the clad counts, the only remaining item to know is who found each treasure. We've identified the finder of the Trime and Reale (S8), and from #4 and S7 the finder of the Gold Indian. That leaves the Silver Dollar and the Platinum Ring that were found by Andrew and Terry. From #7 we know that the user of the Fisher did not find a silver treasure, and from S9 that the Fisher was used by Andrew Kirkland. Therefore Andrew must have found the Platinum Ring, which means that Terry Riggs found the Silver Dollar.

This means we have solved everything but the clad counts:
Andrew Kirkland, Fisher, Beach, Platinum Ring
Barbara Langley, White's, Farm, Reale
Chris Wooten, Garrett, Park, Trime
Felix McMahon, Tesoro, River, Gold Indian
Terry Riggs, Minelab, Trail, Silver Dollar​

SOLUTION PART TWO:

Now that we know who everyone is, we have clues that describe proportioned amounts of clad between each person. Using these clues we can work out how much each person found, like so:

  • S11: Total Clad is $47, this is the sum of (A)ndrew, (B)arbara, (C)hris, (F)elix, and (T)erry. A + B + C + F + T = 47
  • S12: From #12 and our solution above, we know that C = 2xB.
  • S13: From #4 and our solution above, we know that T = B-1.
  • S14: From #1 and our solution above, we know that A = T/3, and from S13 we therefore know that A = (B-1)/3.
  • S15: From #2 and our solution above, we know that F = B/2.
  • S16: From S12-S15 we can rewrite the formula in S11 entirely in terms of B: (B-1)/3 + B + 2xB + B/2 + (B-1) = 47
  • S17: Solving for B:
(B-1)/3 + B + 2xB + B/2 + (B-1) = 47
4xB + (B-1)/3 + B/2 - 1 = 47
4xB + B/3 - 1/3 + B/2 - 1 = 47
4xB + B/3 + B/2 = 47 + 1 + 1/3
4xB + B/3 + B/2 = 141/3 + 3/3 + 1/3
4xB + B/3 + B/2 = 145/3
4xB + (2xB)/6 + (3xB)/6 = 145/3
4xB + (5xB)/6 = 145/3
(24xB)/6 + (5xB)/6 = 145/3
(29xB)/6 = 145/3
29xB = 870/3
29xB = 290
B = 290/29
B = 10​
  • S18: Now that we know B is 10, we can trivially compute the other variables. C = 2xB = 20, T = B-1 = 9, A = T/3 = 3, and F = B/2 = 5.
That gives us the clad counts for everyone, and completes the puzzle:
Andrew Kirkland, Fisher, Beach, Platinum Ring, $3
Barbara Langley, White's, Farm, Reale, $10
Chris Wooten, Garrett, Park, Trime, $20
Felix McMahon, Tesoro, River, Gold Indian, $5
Terry Riggs, Minelab, Trail, Silver Dollar, $9
​

Congratulations to everyone who solved it, and better luck next time to those who didn't quite crack this one.
 
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