In Quentin Tarantino’s iconic Reservoir Dogs, the heist gang is given codenames because their boss wants to ensure that they do not know each other’s true identities. That is why we are introduced to the six as Mr Blonde, Mr Blue, Mr Brown, Mr Orange, Mr Pink, and Mr White. Only five of them are relevant to our puzzle.
In the popular Japanese animated series Sailor Moon, the superhero Sailors are named after familiar celestial bodies. Our puzzle is concerned with only five of them.
#Puzzle 211.1
Five Sailors and five members of the heist gang are at a dance. We do not know why the superhero Sailors, who are protectors of the Earth, have agreed to dance with criminals. Perhaps it is to expose their plot, or perhaps they have no idea about the true identities of their dance partners, just like the partners have no idea about one another’s true identities. Either way, it is not relevant.
What is relevant is that there are five dances, each involving one gang member and one Sailor. Everyone has one dance, and each dance is of a different form. Each Sailor is wearing a dress of a different colour, and a different kind of celestial accessory.
The Sailors: Sailor Moon, Sailor Jupiter, Sailor Mars, Sailor Mercury, Sailor Venus
{{/usCountry}}The Sailors: Sailor Moon, Sailor Jupiter, Sailor Mars, Sailor Mercury, Sailor Venus
{{/usCountry}}Their partners: Mr Blonde, Mr Brown, Mr Orange, Mr Pink, Mr White
The dances: Foxtrot, rumba, salsa, tango, waltz
Sailors’ dresses: Black, blue, green, red, yellow
Accessories: Cosmic cloak, golden gloves, luminous locket, moonlit mask, silver scarf
The usual disclaimers apply. Consecutive dances can mean either (A before B) or (B before A) unless the order is specified. Before and after may or may not mean consecutive dances, unless that is explicitly stated. Here are your clues:
1. The dances either began or ended with Sailor Mars and her partner
2. The Sailor in a red dress had the second dance
3. Mr Blonde had the third dance
4. The fourth dance was a rumba
5. Mr Pink danced with Sailor Mercury
6. Mr Brown danced with Sailor Jupiter
7. Sailor Venus was wearing a moonlit mask
8. The Sailor in a green dress was wearing golden gloves as her accessory
9. The tango came immediately after Mr White’s dance
10. Sailor Moon’s dance and the rumba were consecutive
11. The Sailors in golden gloves and a moonlit mask had consecutive dances
12. The Sailor in a blue dress and her partner had either the first or the last dance
13. The Sailor in a black dress had the fourth dance
14. The tango and the dance with the Sailor in a yellow dress were consecutive
15. Mr Blonde’s dance was before the salsa
16. The waltz did not involve the Sailor in the cosmic cloak
17. The rumba and Sailor Jupiter’s dances were consecutive
18. The Sailor in a silver scarf and Sailor Jupiter had consecutive dances
19. Sailor Moon’s dance came immediately after the tango
20. Mr Orange’s dance came before the dance with the Sailor in a yellow dress
21. The Sailor in the third dance was wearing a luminous locket
22. The foxtrot and the dance with the Sailor in a black dress were consecutive
In tabular form, arrange the five pairs of dancers, their dances, and the dresses and accessories of the Sailors.
#Puzzle 211.2
A magician holds a set of 10 cards and deals the top card on the table. It is an ace. He places the top card among the remaining nine at the bottom of his set, and deals the next card. It is a 2. Once again, he transfers the top card to the bottom and deals the next card. It is a 3. This continues until he has dealt all 10 cards from an ace to a 10 in ascending order.
What was the original order of the cards?
#Puzzle 210.2 (rerun)
There was a typo last week. Unfortunately, by the time a couple of readers alerted me about it, some other readers had already replied. For fairness, the answer is being withheld for a week, with all readers getting a second chance.
Here is the corrected sequence:
10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20, 22, 24, 31, 100, __, 10000, 1111111111111111
What is the missing term?
MAILBOX: LAST WEEK’S SOLVERS
#Puzzle 210.1
Hello Kabir,
Let a, b, and c denote the number of pages in one copy of Oliver Twist, one copy of David Copperfield and one copy of Great Expectations respectively. Given,
7a + 11b + 10c = 19580
13a + 8b + 9c = 19850
We need to find the total number of pages in 89a + 28b + 41c. The number of pages in each novel is not required.
89a + 28b + 41c
= (–4)(7a + 11b + 10c) + (9)(13a + 8b + 9c)
= (–4 x 19580) + (9 x 19850) = 100,330
Therefore, the total number of pages is 100,330.
— Dr Sunita Gupta, New Delhi
With such large coefficients, how does the solver know that one equation has to be multiplied by (–4) and the other by 9 in order to find the result? Dr Sunita Gupta has shown a very efficient method for deriving the multipliers. I will leave that for another day.
Solved #Puzzle 210.1: Dr Sunita Gupta (Delhi), Shri Ram Aggarwal (Delhi), Yadvendra Somra (Sonipat), Professor Anshul Kumar (Delhi), Shishir Gupta (Indore), Vinod Mahajan (Delhi), Sabornee Jana (Mumbai)