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Here is a very difficult Einstein-type puzzle, taken from my website. I won't give the answer now, but will wait and see if anyone can solve it before I give the answer.

The Thickest Twit

The popular quiz show “The Thickest Twit”, hosted by Ann Robbins whose catchphrase “You are the thickest twit – go away” has become something of a national institution, was on TV the other evening. The quiz starts with 9 contestants and after each round the remaining contestants vote for the thickest twit. Whoever gets the most votes is then eliminated. Once the eighth round is reached, the two remaining contestants go head-to-head, and the person who gets more questions right in this round takes all the money that has been built up in the kitty from the previous rounds. From the clues below can you work out after which round each of the contestants was voted off (or whether they were the winner or runner-up), their hometown and their job?

(N.B. If a clue says a person was “voted off”, they did not reach the last round)

Contestants: Alan, Betty, Colin, Diana, Edward, Florence, George, Helen, Ian

Round: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, Runner-up, Winner

Hometown: Birmingham, Dover, Exeter, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Nottingham

Job: Bus Driver, Lawyer, Nurse, Retired, Stockbroker, Student, Taxi Driver, Teacher, Unemployed

1. Alan was voted off two rounds after Betty (not from Glasgow), and two rounds before Florence finished her involvement in the quiz.

2. The person from Exeter (not Alan) was voted off after the student from Nottingham, but not in round 4.

3. The nurse who isn’t Ian, made it into the final round, but the person from Dover wasn’t the winner. Colin may or may not be the Bus Driver.

4. The person from Manchester was voted off unanimously by his/her three remaining opponents.

5. Edward was also voted off by three people after one of the rounds: the Liverpudlian (not the lawyer); the Taxi Driver; and Ian (not from Birmingham). Edward and the two other remaining contestants all voted for Ian, which resulted in a tie. However in a tied situation the brightest twit for that round gets the casting vote. Unfortunately for Edward this was Ian, so Edward had to go! Neither of these latter two is the stockbroker from London.

6. Diana is unemployed, Helen (not the teacher) comes from Leeds, and Florence is a 63-year-old retired librarian.

7. The teacher who isn’t from Dover or Birmingham, was embarrassingly, the first person voted off, after a disastrous round in which he/she got no questions right. The teacher isn’t George, who wasn’t the next person to be voted off, though he did get voted off later.

Edited by rookie1ja
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OK, a couple of hints to help you with the problem - I'll put them in as spoilers.

Don't forget that there are 9 contestants in the first round, 8 in the second etc.

If someone votes another person off, they will then progress to the next round.

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Does "the two other remaining" mean the only two remaining beside Edward? Then how is tie possible?
there are six contestants left: Edward, the three that voted for Edward, and the other (or remaining) 2.
Edited by Cherry Lane
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Cherry Lane, your interpretation is absolutely correct. I don't see how the clue can be read in any other way.

bonanova - well done, absolutely correct!

armcie - you're right, the clue doesn't help in any way. It just introduces two variables that aren't mentioned antwhere else in the clues. I could have left out the list of persons, jobs and towns and it still would have been solvable.

The full answer, with the explanation of how to work it out is given in the spoiler below.

Remember throughout that the first round has nine players, the second round eight, etc., and the head-to-head has two contestants. So the person from Manchester was voted off 6th as there were 4 contestants remaining (clue 4), and Edward was voted off 4th as there were 6 contestants remaining (clue 5). The teacher who was voted off 1st doesn’t come from Nottingham or Exeter (2), Manchester (4), Liverpool (voted off Edward 4th, above) or London (5), Leeds (6), Dover or Birmingham (7), so Glasgow. The teacher wasn’t Alan, Betty or Florence (1), Ian (as Liverpool, above) or Edward (5), Helen or Diana (6), George (7), so Colin. Betty wasn’t voted off in rounds 5, 6, or 7, neither was she the runner-up or the winner (1), and she wasn’t voted off in round 1 (7). Edward was voted off 4th (5) so she wasn’t voted off in round 2 (1) either. So round 3. So Alan was voted off in round 5 and Florence in round 7 (1). George wasn’t voted off in round 2 and he wasn’t the winner or runner-up (7), so round 6 and is from Manchester (4). The nurse who was the winner or runner-up (3) isn’t Alan, Betty or Florence (1 and above), Colin or George (above), Edward (5), Diana (6) or Ian (3), so Helen. By elimination, Diana was the 2nd person to be eliminated! The person from Exeter didn’t go in rounds 1, 2, 3, or 4 and wasn’t the winner or runner-up (2). George from Manchester went in the 6th round (above), and Alan who is not from Exeter (2) in the 5th. So the person from Exeter was voted out in round 7 and is Florence. The person from Liverpool who lasted past the 4th round wasn’t Betty, Colin, Diana, Edward, Florence, George or Helen (above), nor was it Ian (5), so Alan. He wasn’t the lawyer, the taxi driver or the stockbroker (5), or the student (2), so the bus driver. The stockbroker from London isn’t Ian or Edward (5), Diana or Florence (6), so Betty. The student from Nottingham who was voted off in rounds 1, 2, 3 or 4 (2) isn’t Alan (1), or Ian (5), so Edward. The person from Birmingham isn’t Ian (5), so Diana. By elimination Ian is from Dover and is the lawyer. George is the taxi driver. As Ian is from Dover he didn’t win the quiz (3), so was runner-up. Helen was the winner.

Thus:

Alan...Round 5...Liverpool...Bus Driver

Betty...Round 3...London...Stockbroker

Colin...Round 1...Glasgow...Teacher

Diana...Round 2...Birmingham...Unemployed

Edward...Round 4...Nottingham...Student

Florence...Round 7...Exeter...Retired

George...Round 6...Manchester...Taxi Driver

Helen...Winner...Leeds...Nurse

Ian...Runner-up...Dover...Lawyer

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