Diagram

[nazu.s.shaikh]

With the exception of question number 1. I'm having a lot of difficulty with the questions for this game.

How do I approach it?

[bbirdwell]

This is a game we would classify as a Closed Assignment game. Your job is track not merely the specific kinds of flowers for each corsage, but the different possibilities for how many of each kind of flower can/will be used. These games are really all about counting.

A simple diagram is attached below. It accounts for the constraint that says two of #1's flowers must be the same kind (a box around those two to illustrate that), and notes that R must be at least twice as many as O, and finally, that O cannot go in #3. All you have to remember to do is use at least one of each flower (at least one G, O, R, V).

As you might predict, the key will be to count Rs and Os.

I suggest you try it with this in mind and then post again if you have difficulty with specific questions.

Cheers!
^brian

[nazu.s.shaikh]

Thank you for the diagram that was helpful.
However when doing the questions 4,5 and 7, my answers or the way I worked out the problems were different from what the answers actually are.

For example #4
How is the answer 5 roses? I am counting only 4. If C2 and C3have the same flowers .. doesn't that mean that both would have G/V/R in each of them and 1 we could infer would have R/R/O? ( because all four flowers need to be used in all 3 corsages)

#5.
If two of the corsages ( I concluded it to be C1 and C2) to have at least one orchid .. why does C2 need a gardenia .. why can't it be a violet and rose?

#7.
We know that C1 can have either GGV or VVG and that C3 would have GVR.. for C2 why can't it be two roses and g/v ... why is it that it has to be one rose and two violets?

[bbirdwell]

Two pieces of advice. First, use the correct answer key - what you think are the correct answers are in fact incorrect. Second, capitalize on the inferences you make and push yourself to look at all the constraints and make ALL the necessary inferences before going to the answer choices. You made a couple of inferences here, but missed a couple of essential ones.

#4.

There are three immediate inferences to make from this question. Though you need not write them down, I have below to better illustrate. Since 2 and 3 must be the same, and you know that 2 has one R, 3 must also have at least 1 R. Likewise, 2 must have at least 1G.

Also, since 3 cannot have any Os, 2 cannot have any Os. You must include at least one O, so it goes in the first corsage, either as the single flower, or as 1's required pair. In the latter case, since there must be at least twice as many Rs as Os, we need 2 more Rs. We also must place one V, and there's only one way to arrange that.

1 O
2 G R
3 G R

1 O O V
2 G R R
3 G R R

With these inferences in mind, go to the choices and do not bother running test scenarios.

A) is the answer, and we inferred that it was a possibility without doing any trial and error, so we know it is correct. Save time! Choose it and move on!

I'm not sure why you inferred that 2 and 3 had to have a V. They could have G/R/V or G/R/R or G/G/R.

#5
Remember when thinking about this one that it doesn't matter what 2 "can" have, it matters what it "must" have.

Indeed you are correct that if two corsages have at least one orchid, they must be 1 and 2. This all we need to solve this problem.

1 O
2 R O
3 G

The answer is (C).

#7
You've made half of the key inferences, but you've overlooked an important one: there must be at least one O! And since, as you inferred, 1 and 3 are full, that O must be in 2.

1 G V V or G G V
2 R O
3 G R V

Clearly, 2 doesn't have to have two violets. As you can see, this is impossible. 2 must have one R and one O.

Thus, (A) is the answer.

Does that clear things up?

[nazu.s.shaikh]

Ahhh!!!!!! I was looking at the wrong answer sections for the questions. No wonder I was confusing myself.

That cleared up a lot of tangled webs. Thank you!

[bbirdwell]

Great! No problem!

[catie0128]

I thought the rule that Corsage 1 much contain exactly two types of flowers meant that it must contain at least two different types of flowers. Can someone please explain this wording?

[bbirdwell]

There are two things going on here: TYPE of flower, and NUMBER of flowers.

Corsage 1 must contain EXACTLY two TYPES of flowers. There are four to choose from: g, o, r, and v. So, without considering any other constraints, we know that Corsage 1 must have either g/o, g/r, g/v, o/r, o/v, or r/v.

We also know that each corsage must have THREE flowers (not three types). Combining that only with the information above and ignoring all other constraints for the moment, this means that Corsage 1 has these options:

GGO/OOG, GGR/RRG, GGV/VVG, OOR/RRO, OOV/VVO, RRV/VVR

Make sense?

[vedacruz]

For #7, what about the rule that says that there have to be twice as many roses and orchids? I'm stuck on this, because since there are bound to be at least 2 G, then there must be at least 4 R (or more). But then that doesn't fit the rules given at first, nor the localized ones.

Please help, it's killing me!

[tommywallach]

Hey Veda,

If you're referring to question 7, we actually do separate threads now for each question. So please post this in the question 7 thread. (If there isn't a question 7 thread, then simply create one and we'll be sure to answer you!)

-t