Thursday, 1 October 2026

"Logic is the beginning of wisdom..."

"...not, the end." So said Mr Spock in Star Trek VI. Notwithstanding that, I used to love logic problems as a kid, and would spend hours putting ticks and crosses in little puzzlebook grids. So here's one I made just for you.

There are five bloggers: Andy, Bob, Charlie, Debra and Erica. They each prefer different radio stations - Radio 1, 2, 3, 4 or 6 - and they each prefer to collect music in different ways - cassette, CD, MP3, Spotify playlist or vinyl. Oh, and they each blog about the music of a different decade: 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s or 00s.

The clues below are all you need to work out who likes which station, which format and which decade, just with logic - no guesswork is required. Here are the clues:

  1. Charlie blogs about 80s music; his preferred medium is MP3.
  2. The blogger who has embraced Spotify also loves Radio 3.
  3. Erica blogs about 90s music.
  4. The vinyl collector (who isn't Andy) loves Radio 2 and blog about 00s music.
  5. The CD collector loves 6 Music, but not 60s music.
  6. Bob (who doesn't listen to Radio 4) blogs about his cassette collection of 70s music.

And here's a grid to help organise your thoughts. Use ticks to mark intersections you know to be true, and crosses to mark combinations that are definitely untrue. Easy, right?

Logic problem 1

And another grid for your answers:

Blogger Radio station Format Decade
Andy
Bob
Charlie
Debra
Erica

And (don't groan) here's The Logical Song (sorry!) to listen to whilst you think...

10 comments:

  1. That was fun thanks. I think I have worked it out but won't put my answers here in case it spoils it for other competitors. All I will say is that Andy seems very confused and may want to rethink some of his life choices.

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    Replies
    1. Its true though. What else can you say about someone who claims to like listening to 2020s electronic dance music on 8-track cartridges during the Shipping Forecast?

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    2. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how to not give spoiler clues! ;)

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  2. Ooh, you're so clever. Thanks for giving us a puzzle, always fun - I'll be giving this my full attention at the weekend. I am not the most logical person, in spite of having an extremely logical mathematical genius of a father - that apple fell a long way from the tree!

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    Replies
    1. Rest assured, this is at the easier end of the logic problem spectrum, suitable for all apples!

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  3. Erk! Will come back to this. Friday afternoon is not my most logic friendly brain time

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    Replies
    1. To be fair, no, Friday afternoon is not the optimum time for this kind of endeavour.

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  4. Well, after limbering up with Saturday Snapshots and topped up with coffee I've had a go and.... is the answer a dolphin in a bathtub?

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