• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Tracking Health and Wellness Applications of Brain Science

Spanish
sb-logo-with-brain
  • Resources
    • Monthly eNewsletter
    • Solving the Brain Fitness Puzzle
    • The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness
    • How to evaluate brain training claims
    • Resources at a Glance
  • Brain Teasers
    • Top 25 Brain Teasers & Games for Teens and Adults
    • Brain Teasers for each Cognitive Ability
    • More Mind Teasers & Games for Adults of any Age
  • Virtual Summits
    • 2019 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • Speaker Roster
    • Brainnovations Pitch Contest
    • 2017 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • 2016 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • 2015 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • 2014 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
  • Report: Pervasive Neurotechnology
  • Report: Digital Brain Health
  • About
    • Mission & Team
    • Endorsements
    • Public Speaking
    • In the News
    • Contact Us

Reasoning Skills Brain Teaser

November 8, 2006 by Caroline Latham

Puz­zle:

Marie, Claude, and Jean are in a com­pe­ti­tion. Here are their results:

  1. The youngest per­son received the least points.
  2. Claude got half of the points of the eldest.
  3. Jean received as many points as both oth­ers combined.

Ques­tion:
Who is the eldest ?

The Brain Exercise:
This puz­zle uses plan­ning and rea­son­ing skills. You read the state­ments and then must devel­op a plan to solve the prob­lem using your rea­son­ing skills. These skills are found pre­dom­i­nant­ly in your pre­frontal cor­tex. This area of your brain is respon­si­ble for exec­u­tive func­tions such as plan­ning, struc­tur­ing, and eval­u­at­ing vol­un­tary, goal-direct­ed behav­ior, i.e., activ­i­ties requir­ing the con­stant com­par­i­son of planned acts with the effects achieved.

If you’ve already got the puz­zle fig­ured out, click on the link below to find the answer.

Solu­tion:
Start with state­ment #2 which tells us that Claude is not the eldest. So the eldest must be either Marie or Jean. State­ment #3 tells us that Jean received the sum of the oth­er two peo­ple’s points, and those point totals are not equal, per state­ment #1 (the youngest has less points than the oth­er two). For Jean to be the eldest, Claude and Marie would each have half of the points of Jean has, but we know they can’t have the same amount of points. There­fore, Jean must have the most points, and Claude must be the youngest, but Marie is the eldest.

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Print
  • More
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Pock­et

Filed Under: Brain Teasers, Brain/ Mental Health, Technology & Innovation Tagged With: Brain Teasers, Brain-anatomy-and-imaging, Brain-exercises, Brain-Fitness, Brain-games, Brain-health, Brain-Training, Casual-Games, Executive-Functions, Mind-Fitness, Mind-Games

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. joseph benedict says

    November 26, 2006 at 4:24

    this does not make sense.. 

    If the youngest per­son has least points
    jean has the sum of equal points of the oth­er two.. (claude has 1/2)
    then, no per­son could be the youngest and jean would be eldest by com­mon sense.

    hon­est­ly who made this??

  2. Caroline says

    November 26, 2006 at 4:25

    The puz­zle says that Jean has as many points as the oth­er two peo­ple com­bined, and those points are not equal giv­en that the youngest per­son has the least amount of points.

    Try it with Jean as the eldest. Say Jean has 10 points, then Claude must have 5 points, leav­ing Marie with 5 points. Then, there is no least amount of points and there­fore, no youngest.

    But what if Jean got the most points, Marie was the eldest, and Claude got half of Marie’s points? Then it works. Say Marie got 10 points, then Claude got 5 points, and Jean got 15 points.

    The eldest did not have to get the most points.

    It’s tricky and tests your auto­mat­ed assumptions!

  3. Coen says

    November 28, 2006 at 8:09

    great fun! Nobody said that the com­pe­ti­tion was about points. Good reminder to read close.

  4. Alvaro says

    November 28, 2006 at 10:38

    Coen: that’s the spirit!

  5. Jazz says

    November 6, 2007 at 11:41

    Pls i don’t get it.

  6. Alvaro says

    November 6, 2007 at 7:41

    Hel­lo Jazz,

    I was start­ing to write an answer but I can­not real­ly improve Caroline’s…

    Let’s start with “Claude got half of the points of the eldest.”

    Giv­en this, it is clear Claude is not the eldest. The 2 options now are Marie and Jean.

    Now, to make things eas­i­er, why don’t you get pen & paper and imag­ine 2 sce­nar­ios, one with Jean as eldest, one with Marie as eldest? give real num­bers. You will see that Jean can­not be the eldest and yet ful­fill those 3 con­straints, there­fore the only answer can be Marie.

    In any case, the real point here is to try!

  7. Beck says

    November 7, 2007 at 10:42

    For fur­ther expla­na­tion, let’s revert back from the solu­tion and rephrase the 3 results.

    From most points to least:
    — Jean = 2x + x
    — Marie (eldest) = 2x
    — Claude (youngest) = x 

    - Based on the results as indi­cat­ed by the puz­zle, both results 1 and 2 point to Claude; there­fore it can be com­bined and rephrased as:
    “Claude is the youngest per­son with the least amount of points, which was half the amount of points of the eldest.”

    Inter­est­ing web­site BTW. =)

  8. Beck says

    November 7, 2007 at 11:26

    For­got to rephrase the 3rd result:
    “Jean received as many points as both Marie and Claude combined”

    I sus­pect some peo­ple may false­ly asso­ciate the eldest with the most points to begin with, which may com­pli­cate the puzzle.

  9. Patkuta says

    November 28, 2007 at 5:39

    “Jean received as many points as both oth­ers combined.”

    While to some, this sen­tence might imply:
    j = c + m
    (where the vari­able rep­re­sents the num­ber of points of the respec­tive person)

    To me, all says is:

    j >= m + c

    In which case, both Marie and Jean could be the eldest:
    youngest: Marie with 1 point
    mid­dle: Claude with 2 points
    eldest: Jean with 4 points

    So either: I can’t under­stand Eng­lish prop­er­ly, there are two answers, or premise 3 is too ambiguous.

  10. Gi says

    November 30, 2007 at 3:09

    I’m dis­ap­point­ed in the edu­ca­tion­al sys­tem! Great puz­zle. There is only ONE answer!

  11. Me says

    December 6, 2007 at 6:16

    🙂

  12. anonymous says

    December 10, 2007 at 1:15

    It should be spec­i­fied that “least” and “eldest” means *strict inequality*.

    Oth­er­wise, j=c=m=0 is a solu­tion, which does­n’t reveal infor­ma­tion about age.

  13. msbe says

    March 19, 2008 at 11:10

    :0

  14. Aaron says

    March 23, 2008 at 10:40

    Is it Jean?

  15. Kimberly Foreman says

    May 19, 2008 at 9:24

    Two

  16. Kimberly Foreman says

    May 19, 2008 at 9:25

    One

  17. Theofanis says

    July 4, 2008 at 4:36

    Jean us the eldest

  18. RUdumb? says

    November 30, 2008 at 6:50

    It’s Jean.
    j=c+m
    nobody says that there was a set amount of point for these three people..so M can have any points in between C and J.
    If M is the eldest ‘x’ points C has ‘x/2’ points so J has(j=m+c) x+ x/2 so Jean has more .. he is the eldest…

  19. magaru says

    March 11, 2009 at 6:31

    Claude and Marie can have the same age .
    In that case she can have the same points as Claude and phare 2 is still true.

  20. lee says

    March 25, 2009 at 8:35

    I see. Marie is def­i­nite­ly the eldest. It does­n’t say the eldest gets the most points. See if Claude gets half the points of the eldest, and marie is the eldest, Jean can have as much as both of them, exam­ple claude — 20, marie, 40, jean 60. jean = marie + claude, Claude = 20 = Youngest. Jean = 60 = Not old­est, but most points, Marie = 40 = 2x Claude = Eldest.

  21. Steve says

    May 6, 2009 at 12:25

    I dont see any pos­si­ble solu­tion that fits all the variables. 

    Yes Jean would log­i­cal­ly be the elder:
    “Jean received as many points as both oth­ers combined”

    but if Claude’s points were half of Jeans”
    “Claude got half of the points of the eldest”

    Then Marie had to have the same num­ber of points as Claude so the first line isn’t true:
    “The youngest per­son received the least points”

  22. loreto says

    May 16, 2009 at 10:58

    it took time to real­ize but marie is def­i­nite­ly the old­est. lets say score was 105. c got half of the old­est. j got both com­bined. c=35. m=70. 35+70=(j)105

Primary Sidebar

Top Articles on Brain Health and Neuroplasticity

  1. Can you grow your hippocampus? Yes. Here’s how, and why it matters
  2. How learning changes your brain
  3. To harness neuroplasticity, start with enthusiasm
  4. Three ways to protect your mental health during –and after– COVID-19
  5. Why you turn down the radio when you're lost
  6. Solving the Brain Fitness Puzzle Is the Key to Self-Empowered Aging
  7. Ten neu­rotech­nolo­gies about to trans­form brain enhance­ment & health
  8. Five reasons the future of brain enhancement is digital, pervasive and (hopefully) bright
  9. What Educators and Parents Should Know About Neuroplasticity and Dance
  10. The Ten Habits of Highly Effective Brains
  11. Six tips to build resilience and prevent brain-damaging stress
  12. Can brain training work? Yes, if it meets these 5 conditions
  13. What are cognitive abilities and how to boost them?
  14. Eight Tips To Remember What You Read
  15. Twenty Must-Know Facts to Harness Neuroplasticity and Improve Brain Health

Top 10 Brain Teasers and Illusions

  1. You think you know the colors? Try the Stroop Test
  2. Check out this brief attention experiment
  3. Test your stress level
  4. Guess: Are there more brain connections or leaves in the Amazon?
  5. Quick brain teasers to flex two key men­tal mus­cles
  6. Count the Fs in this sentence
  7. Can you iden­tify Apple’s logo?
  8. Ten classic optical illu­sions to trick your mind
  9. What do you see?
  10. Fun Mental Rotation challenge
  • Check our Top 25 Brain Teasers, Games and Illusions

Join 12,619 readers exploring, at no cost, the latest in neuroplasticity and brain health.

By subscribing you agree to receive our free, monthly eNewsletter. We don't rent or sell emails collected, and you may unsubscribe at any time.

IMPORTANT: Please check your inbox or spam folder in a couple minutes and confirm your subscription.

Get In Touch!

Contact Us

660 4th Street, Suite 205,
San Francisco, CA 94107 USA

About Us

SharpBrains is an independent market research firm tracking health and performance applications of brain science. We prepare general and tailored market reports, publish consumer guides, produce an annual global and virtual conference, and provide strategic advisory services.

© 2022 SharpBrains. All Rights Reserved - Privacy Policy