All-Star Puzzles
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The Vending Machines
Trace the trail of Stu Snackerman as he services his machines.
February 17, 2003
From the introduction, Stu Snackerman refills a different vending machine, selling a different kind of item, at an office on each of the floors (1st-5th), using the elevator to haul his products from floor to floor. By clue 1, on Friday, Stu made 6 elevator trips--2 up and 4 down--to service the machines and return to his truck, with only one stop per vending machine. We know then that Stu did not restock the 1st floor machine either first or fifth (last); if he had, he would have needed only 5 elevator rides to do his job. By clue 4, Stu serviced the machine in the Wes Westerfield, Inc. office, then took his cart to an office on the 4th floor, and then restocked the items for sale in the advertising agency's machine. The Wes Westerfield, Inc. machine must then have been serviced first, second, or third on Stu's rounds. If the Wes Westerfield, Inc. machine had been restocked first, then the 4th-floor machine would have been done second, and the machine in the advertising agency's spaces would have been serviced third (clue 4). If the Wes Westerfield, Inc. offices aren't on the 5th floor but are on the 2nd or 3rd, then Stu would have had to have made 3 elevator rides up to finish his rounds: up to floor 2 or 3, up to floor 4, and, sometime later, up to floor 5--a conflict with clue 1. So the Wes Westerfield, Inc. spaces would be on the 5th floor. Since the machine in the advertising agency's offices doesn't sell candy (2), the Moon & Beam offices wouldn't be on the 4th floor (5). Similarly, since Wes Westerfield, Inc. aren't the attorneys (9), Milton Frobischer couldn't be on the 4th floor (6). By clue 7, Harvard Bros. offices couldn't be on the 4th floor; so Delay and Sons would be, with the sandwich vending machine then the third in order to have been serviced Friday (8). Since the sandwiches aren't sold on the 1st floor (3), by clue 1, Stu would have visited the 1st floor fourth. By clue 7, then, the sandwiches would be on the 3rd floor and Harvard Bros. on the 1st. By elimination, Stu's last stop would have been on the 2nd floor. By clue 10, Wes Westerfield, Inc. would be the real estate agency, and the 4th floor machine would contain sundries. By clue 5, Moon and Beam would lease 3rd-floor spaces, and the candy machine would be in the Harvard Bros. offices. Milton Frobischer would have offices on the 2nd floor, so Harvard Bros. would be attorneys-at-law (6). Then the soda machine would be on the 5th floor (6)--no (12). Therefore, the first arrangement that the Wes Westerfield, Inc. offices were visited first doesn't work. Trying the second possibility, Wes Westerfield, Inc. would have been the second office Stu visited Friday, followed by the 4th floor visit and the stop in the advertising agency's area. From clue 1, we know the first stop wasn't on the 1st floor; and by clue 7, the stop on the 3rd floor wasn't made last. If the machine serviced first had been on the 2nd or 3rd floor, then Stu would have had to have made 3 elevator rides up to finish his rounds; the possible sequences all contradict clue 1: 2-1-4-3-5, 2-3-4-1-5, 3-1-4-2-5, 3-1-4-5-2, 3-2-4-1-5, 3-5-4-1-2. So, the first machine Stu refilled Friday would have been on the 5th floor. If the second machine Stu filled Friday were on the 2nd or 3rd floor, there would again be three up rides to do the job: the one to the 5th floor, the one from the 2nd or 3rd floor to the 4th, and the ride up from the 1st floor to either the 2nd or the 3rd. So, the second floor visited would have been the 1st. By clue 7, then, Stu would have filled the 3rd floor machine in the advertising agency offices, followed by his last stop at Harvard Bros. offices on the 2nd floor. Since the sandwich machine isn't on the 1st floor (3), by clue 8, Delay and Sons couldn't have been Stu's first Friday stop. By clue 6, Martin Frobischer's spaces aren't on the 1st floor. Moon & Beam would have offices on the 1st floor, the candy machine then located in the Wes Westerfield, Inc. offices (5). Since Wes Westerfield, Inc. aren't the law offices (9), by clue 6, the attorneys-at-law would be on the 4th floor and Martin Frobischer on the 3rd. By clue 10, Stu went down from the real estate agency to the office where the sundries machine is; there is no way to fit this information into the current arrangement. So, the second possibility, that Wes Westerfield, Inc. was Stu's second stop on Friday fails. Wes Westerfield, Inc. was Stu's third visit on Friday, with the 4th floor customer Stu's fourth stop and the advertising agency his fifth and last. By clue 1, Stu's last stop wasn't on the 1st floor; and by clue 7, his last stop wasn't on the 3rd floor. If Stu's last stop had been on the 5th floor, he would have had to go up in the elevator 3 times: up to the first offices, which aren't on the 1st floor (1); up from the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd floor to the 4th floor, his fourth stop, and up from the 4th to the 5th floor. So, Stu's last stop was on the 2nd floor. By clue 7, Stu's 3rd floor visit was followed by a refill in the Harvard Bros. offices. The 3rd floor stop couldn't have been the second one, since then both Harvard Bros. and Wes Westerfield, Inc. would have been the third. If the 3rd floor stop had been third, in the Wes Westerfield, Inc. offices, there would be a contradiction with clue 1: the first stop wasn't on the 1st floor, so the 1st floor visit would have been Stu's second, and there would be 3 up trips on the elevator: up to the first stop on the 5th floor, up from the 1st to the 3rd floor, and up from the 3rd to the 4th floor. Therefore, the 3rd floor stop was Stu's first on Friday, and Harvard Bros. was his second (7). If Stu's second stop had been on the 5th floor, there would be 3 up rides on the elevator: the ride up to the 3rd floor, the ride from the 3rd to the 5th floor, and the ride from the 1st to the 4th. So, Stu's second stop on Friday was on the 1st floor and his second on the 5th. Wes Westerfield, Inc. are not the attorneys (9). By clue 6, then, the attorneys' spaces on the 4th floor were visited fourth, and Milton Frobischer is an advertising agency. Since the candy machine isn't in the advertising agency's offices (2), by clue 5, Moon & Beam's spaces were the first Stu visited on Friday, and the candy can be found in Harvard Bros. offices. By elimination, Delay & Sons are the attorneys-at-law; so Stu serviced the sandwich machine last on Friday (8). By clue 10, after restocking the machine in the realtors spaces, Stu took the elevator down to the sundries machine. Wes Westerfield, Inc. is a real estate agency, and the sundries are sold in Delay & Sons offices. By clue 11, Moon & Beam are accountants; and Harvard Bros. sells insurance. The soda machine is in Moon & Beam's offices, and the ice cream is available in Wes Westerfield, Inc.'s spaces (12). In sum, Stu serviced the five vending machines in the Summerset Professional building in order as follows:

  • 1 -- soda, Moon & Beam, accountants, 3rd floor
  • 2 -- candy, Harvard Bros., insurance, 1st floor
  • 3 -- ice cream, Wes Westerfield, Inc., real estate, 5th floor
  • 4 -- sundries, Delay & Sons, attorneys, 4th floor
  • 5 -- sandwiches, Milton Frobischer, advertising, 2nd floor

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