# How can I find which person belongs to a specific occupation when the clues involve degree of friendship or acquaintance?

The riddle is as follows:

Brenda, Lara, Mie and Nancy have each one profession. These professions are, baker, graphics designer, photographer and cosmetologist.

But not necessarily in that order.

• Lara and the graphics designer know each other. They are godmothers.
• The photographer, Brenda and the graphics designer are married.
• Mie and Lara enjoy always being without makeup or any personal care or beauty treatments.
• Nancy, the baker and the photographer don't know each other.

Who's the baker and what's Nancy's profession?

The alternatives given in my book are as follows:

$$\begin{array}{ll} 1.&\textrm{Brenda and cosmetologist}\\ 2.&\textrm{Nancy and graphics designer}\\ 3.&\textrm{Mie and cosmetologist}\\ 4.&\textrm{Lara and photographer}\\ \end{array}$$

I'm confused on this question, exactly how should I relate the given clues involving acquaintance?

The part which confused me the most is the clue regarding being godmothers. Does it mean that each one is godmother for the other's child?

Anyway as suggested I attempted to make a logic grid for this but I could only fill these squares.

$$\begin{array}{|c|c|c|c|c|}\hline \textrm{person}&\textrm{baker}&\textrm{graphics designer}&\textrm{photographer}&\textrm{cosmetologist}\\\hline \textrm{Brenda}&&x&x&\\\hline \textrm{Lara}&&x&&x\\\hline \textrm{Mie}&&&&x\\\hline \textrm{Nancy}&x&&x&\\\hline \end{array}$$

From this there are too many empty squares to make a decision on where to choose to put the checkmark. Can someone help me here? I'm really stuck at the place where I should assign the professions.

The part which I don't know how to relate is the degree of acquaintance between them. How does this translate into information which I can put in the logic grid?

What would help me the most is an answer which explains this using logic grids being filled step by step and more importantly why.

• This certainly emphasizes the importance of the Oxford comma! – Dr Xorile Mar 15 at 20:35
• This question, and the other one you also posted about the same time, ask about puzzles taken from a book. For content you did not create yourself, proper attribution is required. Please edit your posts to include what book these came from. Posts which use someone else's content without attribution are generally deleted. – Rubio Mar 15 at 21:17

The degree of friendship or acquaintance is not important except to show differences.

• Lara and the graphics designer known each other. They are godmothers.

That means Lara is not the graphics designer.

• The photographer, Brenda and the graphics designer are married.

The punctuation is a bit confusing here - at first I thought it meant Brenda is the photographer and she's married to the graphics designer! But you're right, it means Brenda is neither the photographer nor the graphics designer.

• Mie and Lara enjoy always being without make up or any personal care or beauty treatments.

Presumably this clue is just meant to say that the cosmetologist is neither Mie nor Lara.

• Nancy, the baker and the photographer don't known each other.

At first glance, this just means Nancy is neither the baker nor the photographer. But there's more! We already know from previous clues that Lara is neither the graphics designer nor the cosmetologist, so Lara is either the baker or the photographer. Now this clue tells us that Nancy and Lara don't know each other, therefore from the first clue, Nancy is not the graphic designer.

Then by elimination,

Nancy is the cosmetologist and Mie is the graphics designer,

and by further elimination,

Lara is the photographer and Brenda is the baker,

so the answer is

option 1.

$$\begin{array}{|c|c|c|c|c|}\hline \textrm{person}&\textrm{baker}&\textrm{graphics designer}&\textrm{photographer}&\textrm{cosmetologist}\\\hline \textrm{Brenda}&\checkmark&\times&\times&\times\\\hline \textrm{Lara}&\times&\times&\checkmark&\times\\\hline \textrm{Mie}&\times&\checkmark&\times&\times\\\hline \textrm{Nancy}&\times&\times&\times&\checkmark\\\hline \end{array}$$

• Interesting approach. But I'm still confused, at first you said that the degree of acquaintance for these people is not relevant, but in last clue you used this as an aid to get a conclusion. Can you explain me this discrepancy?. As you correctly mentioned, at first glance the last clue did said Nancy is neither a baker nor a photographer. But that's the only logical conclusion which I could obtain from it. But I don't know how does this works with the first clue?. This is the part where I'm stuck at. How does not knowing each other rules out one of the choices?. – Chris Steinbeck Bell Mar 15 at 20:05
• @Chris I said it's not important except to show differences - essentially, you can use it to put $\times$ in the grid somewhere. You need to combine the clues together. As said: "We already know that Lara must be either the baker or the photographer, from previous clues, so that means Nancy and Lara don't know each other. Then from the first clue, Nancy is not the graphic designer." Which part of this do you not follow? (Lara is either baker or photographer is already in your grid progress; Nancy and Lara not acquainted then comes from the last clue, and that connects with the first clue.) – Rand al'Thor Mar 15 at 20:12
• Ok I got your point. The part where I'm stuck on combining the two clues together. Nancy doesn't know the baker and the photographer. But this doesn't mention that she doesn't know the graphics designer. The only thing which I could say is that since Nancy doesn't know the baker or the photographer then Lara could be one of these choices but nothing more. Then there's the second clue. The photographer and the graphics designer are married. Doesn't this provides a clue about aqcuaintance?. – Chris Steinbeck Bell Mar 15 at 20:23
• @Chris Lara is either the baker or the photographer - I think that's the part you're not getting. You know Lara isn't the graphics designer, and Lara isn't the cosmetologist, therefore she must be one of the other two. Therefore Nancy doesn't know her. Therefore Nancy can't be the graphics designer. – Rand al'Thor Mar 15 at 20:30
• @Chris I did put this in my answer already, but I've edited now to try to improve the explanation. – Rand al'Thor Mar 15 at 20:43

Here's one way to do it:

From clue 1, we know that Lara knows the graphic designer.

From clue 4, we know that neither the baker nor the photographer knows Nancy. So Lara, who can only be one of those two, does not know Nancy.

Lara knows the graphic designer, but not Nancy -- so Nancy is not the graphic designer.

So you can cross out the "Nancy / graphic designer" square, and this gives you the rest of the grid very easily by process of elimination.