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I am not sure where to start to solve this problem:

  • Smith, Jones, and Rodriguez are the engineer, brakeman, and fireman on a train, not necessarily in that order.

  • Riding on the train are three passengers with the same last names as the crewmembers, identified as passenger Smith, passenger Jones, and passenger Rodriguez.

  • The brakeman lives in Denver.

  • Passenger Rodriguez lives in San Francisco.

  • Passenger Jones long ago forgot all the algebra that he learned in high school.

  • The passenger with the same name as the brakeman lives in New York.

  • The brakeman and one of the passengers, a professor of mathematical physics, attend the same health club.

  • Smith beat the fireman in a game of tennis at a court near their homes.

Can you discover a theorem that tells the name of the engineer, the brakeman, and the fireman? I am lost on where to start. Thank you

  • 0
    A teeny-tiny note on language: what you want to do is to derive a theorem from the given postulates. You **don't** solve postulates; they're the things you're supposed to take for granted as being true.2012-05-12
  • 2
    What does this have to do with geometry?2012-05-12
  • 0
    @Neal: Probably the idea of establishing postulates and deriving conclusions from them. I can't say that this problem seems a very good example, though.2012-05-12
  • 1
    This type of puzzle is sometimes called *zebra puzzle*, see [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebra_puzzle).2012-05-12
  • 0
    Also see http://www.logic-puzzles.org/2015-08-23

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