This document provides clues to solve a logic puzzle involving placing world capital cities into a 5x5 grid based on letters and features of the cities. Following the clues:
1. QUITO is placed in E5 and ULAN BATOR in A5 as they are the only capitals with those initial letters.
2. OUAGADOUGOU is placed in C3 as it is the only capital matching the clue about its letter-to-consonant ratio.
3. Additional clues allow deducing the placement of several other capitals like BEIJING, JERUSALEM, LJUBLJANA, and MOGADISHU.
4. Working through each
1. Capital Cities LOGIC Game
http://www.sporcle.com/games/mrsmith/capital-cities-logic-game
by mrsmith
A pen and paper would be very useful to help with this
logic game. The next two slides give all of the world
capitals in alphabetical order, which could also be handy.
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Following the track indicated by the first clue, as there is
only one ‘Q’ capital and one ‘U’ capital in the world, QUITO
must be in E5 and ULAN BATOR must be in A5.
5. What we are told in E5 can only mean that OUAGADOUGOU is in C3, as this
is the only capital with this vowel:consonant ratio.
The closest capital to Ulan Bator is BEIJING, so the latter is located in A4.
(A4 tells us that we can also bear in mind that Beirut must be in A2 or
A3, as it is the only other capital to start with ‘BEI-’.)
6. We know from the clue in A1 that Row 1’s cities must begin with I, J, K, L and
M respectively. C3 tells us that Row 1’s cities have 9 letters, so the only
possibilities for B1, B4 and B5 are JERUSALEM, LJUBLJANA and MOGADISHU
respectively.
7. We know that E3 must begin with an ‘O’. E1 has told us that it cannot be
Ottawa. As there are only 3 capitals in the world that begin with ‘O’ and we
have already inserted Ouagadougou, E3 must be OSLO.
D1 clue: The only 6 letter capital whose letters feature within ‘Ljubljana’ is
BANJUL, so this must be in B3.
8. B3 clue: The only capital to share 4 of Banjul’s 6 letters in the same position is
BANGUI, so this is in A3.
Thinking back to what we were told in A4, BEIRUT must be in A2.
9. A2 clue: Take the U out of Beirut to leave B E R I T. This forms and anagram
of ‘TIBER’, which flows through ROME, so the latter is in D5.
A3 clue: This confirms that OTTAWA is in the quiz and so it must be in D3.
10. According to the clues in D3 and D5, D4 must be a city with 4 letters that begins with
the letter pair ‘BA-’. This leaves BAKU as the only possible option.
D4 then tells us that Kingstown is NOT in the quiz, and we already know that C1 must be
a 9-letter city beginning with K. This leaves KATHMANDU as the only possible option.
11. C1 clue: We know by now that A4 is Beijing, the capital of China. The only
capital in the world to begin with CHI- is CHISINAU, so this must be in B4.
12. At this point, as per the info in B4, making a list of capitals ending in –U reveals
that the remaining options are Bissau, Maseru, Nassau, Roseau and Thimphu, of
which 2 must be on the outside of the grid. Referring back to the info in A1, these
2 cities must begin with consecutive letters between I and U, ruling out Bissau.
Mogadishu and Rome are already inserted, so Maseru and Roseau are also
logically eliminated. Therefore, E2 must be NASSAU and B5 must be THIMPHU.
13. B5 clue: The city to the right of Thimphu in C5 must begin with S and has the same
number of letters as the city in D4, i.e. four. The only capital city to which this applies is
SUVA, so this is in C5.
Logically, Bissau, Maseru and Roseau must be somewhere in Row 2, as the only other
remaining box (E4) must contain a city beginning with P.
14. Clue C5: The only capital which can be spelt using 5 of the letters in
Kathmandu is DHAKA, so the latter is in C4.
C2 starts with the same letter as the city in E5 (i.e. ROME). We know that
this city also ends in -U and so it must be ROSEAU.
15. Clue C2: The city in D2 must end with –SSAU, to match Nassau
in E2, so it must be BISSAU.
16. The only remaining capital ending in –U is MASERU and we already know
that this cannot be located in E4, which must begin with P, so MASERU is
in B2. (Clue D2 also confirms this, as MASERU can be found in the letters
of JERUSALEM.)
17. Clue D2: Just as JERUSALEM can be used to spell MASERU, the city in E4 can be used
to spell OSLO. We also know that it begins with the letter P (by referring back to Clue
A1). The only P capital which contains the letters O,S,L,O is PORT LOUIS, so this is the
final city that can be slotted into the grid.