Challenging My Child

The other day I told my child that I would develop math or logic puzzles for him most days for the rest of the summer.  Here is tomorrow's.  Probably complicated enough I'll need to work on at least some of it with him.

Mr. Stuart Thompson had been away for the first four weeks of hockey season.  During that time, his son, Kendall, had been carpooling with his three buddies Abraham, Peter, and Zachary to hockey practices.  When Mr. Thompson returned from his long sales trip away, Dr. Elizabeth Thompson, his wife and Kendall’s mother, decided that Mr. Thompson should be the driver for the game in Hagerstown the next day.  The game started at 7 AM which meant that the boys needed to be there at 6 AM which meant leaving the house around 4:30 AM.

Mr. Thompson woke up at 4, showered, and awakened Kendall.  On the way out the front door, he found a note from Dr. Thompson taped to the door, and made sure to grab it and take it with him.  The front of the envelope said, “Important.”  He asked Kendall for directions to the other boys’ houses.  By the time he was done, he knew that he had left his home in Lake Walker, picked up boys in the neighborhoods including Anneslie, Stoneleigh, and Timonium.  As he picked up each boy, he just had the boys toss their bags, sticks, and jerseys into the back of the van.   The boys stayed awake chattering until they got to the beltway, and then slept soundly until they arrived in Hagerstown.  Then were there at 5:50.  Mr. Thompson went to the back of the van and opened the door while the boys slept.  He realized that the back area looked like a disaster and he could not tell whose stuff was whose.  He wasn’t even sure what his own son’s number was as the jerseys did not have names.  And he knew that his wife had just bought a new bag and re-taped his son’s hockey stick, so he was not sure what equipment was Kendall’s. 

As he was standing there a bit perplexed, he remembered the note his wife had left him—maybe she had realized how puzzled he might be and had thought ahead to help him.  He opened the envelope, and this is what he read:

Dear Stuart,

Next year, I hope you don’t have a four week sales trip at the start of hockey season.  It has been a real pain for the past four weeks even with carpooling.  Since your company sells puzzles and I know how much you enjoy them, I’ve made a puzzle for you to help you sort out the boys’ stuff.  I’ve know you for two decades, and I bet you just had the kids throw all their stuff in the back and they are sleeping now that you have reached Hagerstown.  Well, see if you can sort the stuff out before the boys awaken. It will make their day if they can report to coach and get dressed without having the stress of sorting everything out.

Here are your clues:

The jersey numbers, as you can see, are 2, 3, 5, and 7.

Last year, the boys scored 10, 17, 18, and 28 goals.

You can see that the bags are black, blue, orange, and red.

You can see that the boys’ sticks are taped with black, green, orange, and red.

You hopefully remember that we live in Lake Walker and that you picked up kids in Anneslie, Stoneleigh, and Timonium.

The boys’ first names are Kendall (you know), Abraham, Peter, and Zachary.

The boys’ last names are Thompson (you know), Crawford, Jamison, and Stevenson.

The boys have red hair (you know), black, blond, and brown.

Their birthdays are in July (hopefully you remember!), April, October, and December.

Your son’s number is the lowest prime number other than 1.

The child who has the only even prime number on his Jersey also is the only one who scored a prime number of goals and the only one born in a prime numbered month. 

Each of the other boys has a number of goals that is a multiple of his jersey number.

The child with the first name that is first in alphabetical order lives in the neighborhood that would be last in alphabetical order.

The child with the first name that is first in alphabetical order has a color bag that would also be first in alphabetical order. 

One child was born in the month that is the same as his number of goals.

Only one child has the same color tape on his stick as the color of his bag.  This child was picked up in Timonium.

The child whose color of tape and bag match is the only child for whom the first letter of his first name matches the first letter of his month of birth.

Only one child’s initials spell a two letter word.

Only one child has matching hair and stick tape.  It does not match his bag color.

The child with the first name that is last in alphabetical order has the last name that is first in alphabetical order.  That child’s jersey is the number of the letter of the alphabet that begins his last name.

You picked up the child who has green tape on his stick in Stoneleigh.

You picked up the child with black hair in Anneslie.

The child with black hair has a bag that matches the color of tape of the child whose tape and hair are the same color. 

There are two children whose bag colors start with the letter of the alphabet that comes after the first letter of their first names. 

If you multiply the month of Abraham’s birth by his jersey number you get the number of goals he scored last year.

If you take the number of the first letter of Peter’s last name, you will get the number of goals he scored last year.  This is the only child for whom this is true.

There is only one child for whom the first letter of the month of his birth and the color of his tape are the same.

The child with the blue bag does not have a hair color that begins with the letter B.

The child with the orange bag does not have brown hair.

That’s all.  Now you should be able to match up the bags, sticks, and jerseys with the boys before they wake up, know who is most likely to score if they played like last year, and know the month in which to wish them a happy birthday. 

Love you!