Maintain Your Brain Friday - Deduction Puzzles

The following puzzles are deduction puzzles. Deductive reasoning involves reaching a conclusion from premises or given facts. The conclusion is true only if the premises or facts are true.


A. Four friends (Gina, Barbara, Harry, & Danny) each bought a cat and a dog last week. Each one decided to name his or her cat after the dog of one of the others. The dogs have different names.
Determine the names of each friend's cat and dog.

1. One of the dogs is named Mack.
2. Harry's cat is not named Benji.
3. Harry's dog is named Ruff.
4. Danny's cat is named Droopy.
5. Gina named her cat after Barbara's dog.




B. Five women (Katia, Lina, Maya, Johanna, and Pina) and one man (Paul) were invited to a crime scene in a large precinct as experts. The areas of expertise covered were profiler, anthropologist, criminologist, detective, DNA expert, and weapons expert.
Determine each person's area of expertise.

1. Katia, Lina, and the anthropologist met at the airport as they came in.
2. Paul, the only male in the group, is not a criminologist.
3. Maya is not a detective.
4. Johanna is neither the anthropologist nor the DNA expert.
5. After viewing the crime scene, the six experts had a general discussion about the crime at lunch together. Sitting around the table were the criminologist, Katia, Johanna, the weapons expert, the female detective, and Pina.





C. Bella, Chita, Ira, Dina, and Mika are best of friends. Yesterday, they met at a cafe to compare their new iPods. Each iPod was a different color (black, blue, green, red, orange), and each friend ordered a different beverage (coffee, soft drink, juice, milk, tea).
What color iPod did each one have, and what beverage did each one order?

1. The person with the red iPod ordered the soft drink.
2. Chita had the juice.
3. Dina brought a blue iPod.
4. Mika did not order milk.
5. The person who ordered milk had the orange iPod.
6. Bella had a green iPod. She did not order coffee.




D. Amy, Katia, Shamila, Renata, and Henrietta work as store clerks at a large mall. One of them has the last name Miller. Each woman sells only one kind of merchandise.
From the following clues, determine each woman's full name and what she sells.

1. Renata, who does not know Ms. Kristoff, does not sell jewelry.
2. Ms. Armad does not sell CDs or books.
3. The five women are Shamila, Renata, Ms. Smith, Ms. Cramer, and the clothing salesperson.
4. Amy's last name is neither Kristoff nor Cramer. Neither Amy nor Ms. Cramer sells CDs.
5. Neither the computer clerk nor the clothing salesperson is named Henrietta or Ms. Armad.


These puzzles came from The Total Brain Workout by Dr. Marcel Danesi, available on Amazon.

Good Luck!