Math Online
Preface to Logic Problems
Solving Logic Problems
Logic Problem Example
Olympic Victory Stand
Trip to the Zoo
Lunch Box Mix-Up
Nine Letters
Sporting Friends
Party Girls
The Dog Show
TV Shuffle
On The Train
Who Owns The Zebra?
The Car Race
The Swimmers
Golf Match
The School Board
Yosemite Institute
What Do You Do?
The Homesick Stars
Cousins & Aunts
Shopping Syndrome
Tennis Match
Baseball Logic Problem
Olympic Dating
The Bachelors
Santa's Pack
Harry's Seven Bottles
The Ship
Taxi Cab Routing
Crossing The Ravine
Logic Problem Answers

Let's look in detail at the step-by-step solution of the elementary logic problem entitled "Muppet's Day Out". The problem states:

Three of the famous Muppets travel to their favorite amusement parks using either a bike, car, or bus. From the given clues, tell which park each Muppet visited and what kind of transportation each used.

This first reading should be non-stop and intended only to get the gist of the problem. Here we have 3 characters going 3 different places with 3 different vehicles.

Note that the thing we are being asked to do is to match each character with a park and a vehicle. A 3X3 table could be used to display this information. The starting point of this problem would most likely be to use the first clue to match Kermit with Disneyland.

This is fairly easy in this problem and could easily be retained in your memory, but on more complicated problems a written list would be a great aid. The lists on this problem would be:

CHARACTERS
Kermit the Frog
Miss Piggy
Fozzie Bear

AMUSEMENT PARKS
Disneyland
MarineWorld
Magic Mountain

VEHICLES
bike
car
bus

We have already noted that the answer could be displayed in a 3X3 matrix

On the left of the boxes the various categories will listed.

Now the filling of the boxes with the appropriate choice may be either direct or indirect. In this case, direct information would come from clue #1-" Kermit went to Disneyland." So 'Kermit' would be placed in one of the character boxes and 'Disneyland' in the park box under Kermit. 

Clue #3"-Miss Piggy went in a car." is also direct information. 'Miss Piggy' would be placed in an empty character box and 'car' in the vehicle box below 'Miss Piggy'. 

Now 'Fozzie Bear' is the only remaining character and must be filled in the only open character box. So from direct information our matrix looks like this:

Clue #4-"Fozzie Bear did not use a bus." is indirect information. If in the vehicle box under 'Fozzie' we note that it is not bus and also not car (Miss Piggy uses the car), then the only remaining choice is bike. So enter 'bike' under 'Fozzie' for vehicle. 

This leads us to a direct inference. Clue #2-"The Muppet going to Marineland used a bike." allows us to fill 'Marineland' in for the park under 'Fozzie'. Only two boxes remain open at this point and it is easy to see that they will be fill with the only remaining choices in each category. 

So by putting in 'bus' for 'Kermit's' vehicle and 'Magic Mountain' for the park that Miss Piggy visited, we have completed the matrix.