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Seven persons belong to an aristocratic family. Six of them married commoners while the remaining person remained unmarried.


In 1904, the first person got married. The couple adopted a Bear.


In 1913, the second person got married. The couple adopted a Lark.


In 1952, the third person got married. The couple adopted a Tern.


In 1983, the fourth person got married. The couple adopted an Ibex.


In 1987, the fifth person got married. Which animal did the couple adopt?


In which year did the sixth person get married?. The couple adopted a Hare.


Finally,
What is the name of the unmarried person?

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1 Answer 1

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This aristocratic family is:

the Noble Gases from the Periodic Table of elements.

Each line of the puzzle's pattern works as follows:

The last two digits of the year are the atomic number of another (non-noble) Periodic Table element whose shortform symbol can be combined with that of one of the seven noble gases to form the name of an animal.

In 1904, the first person got married. The couple adopted a Bear.

Element 04 is Beryllium (Be). With Argon (Ar) these two symbols combine to make BeAr.

In 1913, the second person got married. The couple adopted a Lark.

Element 13 is Aluminium (Al). With Krypton (Kr) you can make lArK.

In 1952, the third person got married. The couple adopted a Tern.

Element 52 is Tellurium (Te). With Radon (Rn) you can make TeRn.

In 1983, the fourth person got married. The couple adopted an Ibex.

Element 83 is Bismuth (Bi). With Xenon (Xe) you can make iBeX.

In 1987, the fifth person got married. Which animal did the couple adopt?

Element 87 is Francium (Fr). The noble gas thus far unused whose symbol can form an animal name when combined with 'Fr' is Oganesson (Og), giving us FrOg.

In which year did the sixth person get married?. The couple adopted a Hare.

The noble gas involved in this question must be Helium (He). Since the 'aristocrats' are all marrying commoners (i.e. non-nobles), we can exclude Argon (Ar) from consideration, and instead the other element involved here must be Radium (Ra), which as element 88 in the Periodic Table means the marriage occurred in 1988.

What is the name of the unmarried person?

The 'unmarried person' - i.e. the only noble gas remaining - is Neon! (Sadly for them, they may have had two chances to wed in 1973 and 1985, but might have considered their potential matches a little too old-fashioned!)

So in summary, the three questions yield the answers:

A frog, 1988, and Neon.

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  • $\begingroup$ This has to be the answer. I got the elements using the two last numbers from all the marriage years but i did not get that "aristocratic" part. Well done :) $\endgroup$
    – fontastico
    Commented Sep 7, 2022 at 11:15
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    $\begingroup$ @Stiv You solve these types of questions so easily! The segment where you mentioned about the potential matches for the unmarried person made me chuckle :) $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 7, 2022 at 12:09
  • $\begingroup$ @chandanr777 Ha, I wouldn't say I find it easy, as such :) But I've done a lot of quizzing in my time, so puzzles built on trivia really appeal to me and this particular subject matter is a personal favourite of mine (it actually formed the basis of my very first question on the site!). $\endgroup$
    – Stiv
    Commented Sep 7, 2022 at 13:01
  • $\begingroup$ @Stiv Nice to know about your quizzing background. And a really cool first question too.. $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 7, 2022 at 15:30
  • $\begingroup$ If the single person got married in 1985, it wouldn't have lasted very long. Though the couple in 1987 would have the same problem, perhaps even more so given that neither of them is (emotionally?) stable... $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 7, 2022 at 19:13

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