Setup and Rule Diagrams

[Adam Tyson]

It's because that's what the rules require, Christine! "Joslin must be the secretary for Y but cannot be assigned to X or Z" means that J is only assigned to Y. "Cannot be assigned to X or Z" is not an either/or proposition - it doesn't mean that J is either not on X or else not on Z. It means that J is not on X AND not on Z.

[mkloo11]

Hi! I was able to complete this game fairly quickly by creating two solution templates based on the numerical distribution 3N/H-2H/N-2K-1J-1M. I made one template with H in all 3 groups and another with N in all 3. (I initially had a second numerical distribution with N and H both in all 3 groups, when K is only in one group (Y). But upon quick glance, it was clear to me that that is not workable, since K and J occupy two spots in group Y, which leaves only one vacancy on that team (H and N cannot both be there.) With those two templates in hand, the questions were doable quickly.

However, I was a little unsure at first about whether I had jumped to a conclusion that each member has to serve somewhere. Should that have seemed clear from the stimulus/rules? I'm used to seeing an explicit rule or sentence in other games, and this one did not have seem to have one. As I'm reviewing the game more, it seems that the situation only works with all the members serving at least once; does that mean that it's an inference that each volunteer serves on at least one committee? Or should it have seemed given?

Thank you!

[Hanin Abu Amara]

Hi! Reading the game if you notice the first sentence says "exactly five volunteers ... are being assigned to three community committees". This language is telling us that all five are being (actively) assigned and as such must all play a role in the game.

If this were a game in which some volunteers don't have to play a role, the language would have been softer and along the lines of "five volunteers CAN be assigned to three committees"

[mkloo11]

Hi! Reading the game if you notice the first sentence says "exactly five volunteers ... are being assigned to three community committees". This language is telling us that all five are being (actively) assigned and as such must all play a role in the game.

If this were a game in which some volunteers don't have to play a role, the language would have been softer and along the lines of "five volunteers CAN be assigned to three committees"

Oof. That seems so clear to me now, but wasn't while I reviewing at the end of the day. Thanks, Hanin!

[cd1010]

Hello,

I was wondering if someone could help me figure out how to systematically go through the numerical distributions for this? I had a lot of trouble with this game. I ended up splitting it into 2, based on where K could go

X Y Z
L K
S J
T

X Y Z
L
S J
T K

For the first one, I knew that M can only occur once (from the rule), and then inferred that J could only occur once because it can't be in X or Z, and it can't occupy 2 positions at once. So in both templates, M and J, only occur once.

Potential repeats are then H, K, N, but then at that point, I was overwhelmed by potential numerical configurations and couldn't proceed.

Help please

[cd1010]

Hello,

I was wondering if someone could help me figure out how to systematically go through the numerical distributions for this? I had a lot of trouble with this game. I ended up splitting it into 2, based on where K could go

.... X.... Y.... Z
L ....K
S.....J
T

.....X ....Y....Z
L
S.....J
T.....K

I knew that M can only occur once (from the rule), and then inferred that J could only occur once because it can't be in X or Z, and it can't occupy 2 positions at once. So in both templates, M and J, only occur once.

Potential repeats are then H, K, N, but then at that point, I was overwhelmed by potential numerical configurations and couldn't proceed.

Help please

[cd1010]

Hello,

I was wondering if someone could help me figure out how to systematically go through the numerical distributions for this? I had a lot of trouble with this game. I ended up splitting it into 2, based on where K could go in Y. Having trouble with diagramming in this post, but basically I tried to split with K as a leader in Y and K as a Treasurer in Y.

.... X.... Y.... Z
L...K
S...J
T

.....X ....Y....Z
L
S...J
T...K

I knew that M can only occur once (from the rule), and then inferred that J could only occur once because it can't be in X or Z, and it can't occupy 2 positions at once. So in both templates, M and J, only occur once.

Potential repeats are then H, K, N, but then at that point, I was overwhelmed by potential numerical configurations and couldn't proceed.

Help please

[Dana D]

Hey CD,

It's easy to get overwhelmed with partially defined games, especially if you start thinking about all the things that 'could' be true. Instead, we want to start from what we know.

We know starting out that J must be the secretary for Y and that K must be in Y, meaning K must serve as either the Leader or the Treasurer. This is what you started with, which is great. Once you get down those absolutes, you want to run back through your rules and see what other information you can plug into the game based off them or the inferences they create. For example, as you correctly identified, the only letters we can repeat with are H/K/N, which is really limiting, especially because we have to fill 3 slots for each committee.

Initially, it might seem like there are tons of possibilities for filling in these committee slots, but if we use the game rules to think about what people could actually serve on each committee, you can start to see how limited the options really are.

So, to start, we have:

Untitled.png

And now we should use the rules to generate additional information. For example, say K is the Leader of committee Y. Go back through the rules and see what else this tells us - if K is the leader, then N cannot be the leader, so N cannot be in Y at all, right? We need someone to be the Treasurer of Y, and we're low on options. We could pick from H or M at this point, so we can fill in the board like this:

Untitled.png

Now that we have Y filled in the best we can, we go back to our rules and see what else we can infer. Rule #2 said M can only be assigned to one committee - so if M is assigned to Y, then it can't be used anywhere else. We already said the only repeat letters we have are H/K/N, so now looking at who I can assign to committees X and Z my only options are those 3 letters. That becomes a problem when trying to fill committee Z, because K cannot be on committee Z. Instead of getting frozen by the possibilities, think through what this means - M must be on committee Z, because if it's used anywhere else, there are not 3 people who can be assigned to committee Z. That's an important inference and it tells us that we can update our board - if K is the leader of Y, then H must be the Treasurer. We also know M has to be on committee Z.

Untitled.png

Again, we don't want to stop here and think we have 3 open committee slots, any of which M could fill. We have to use H/N or M in these slots, and we have a rule about N - if it's used, it's the leader. So really, committee Z has to look like this:

Untitled.png

At this point, there's nothing else we can determine from the rules, so we can leave this template alone.

You can run through that same process when you place K in the Treasurer spot of committee Y - just keep using the game rules to hurdle the uncertainty and fill in what you do actually know.

Hope that helps!