Hatter's Tea Party
Welcome to my tea party! I’m still setting the table… Do you think you could help me? I have some very specific rules you must follow:
- Place one teacup next to each spoon, directly to the left, right, top, or bottom (but not diagonally!)
- A teacup can never be horizontally, vertically, or diagonally touching another teacup! So, when you place a teacup, you can X out all squares that surround it immediately in all directions.
- I’ve indicated exactly how many teacups should appear in each row and each column.
You’ll probably want to grab a sheet of paper and take notes as you set the table and place the nine teacups next to these nine spoons. I find that it’s helpful to draw a circle for each teacup and also mark off all the spots where there can’t be a teacup. If you need more help, check out my handy dandy Teacup Placement Tutorial!
Once you’ve properly set the table, I could also use your help with another mystery… One of the guests is running late to the party, but I cannot remember who it is! They left me this weird list of words – maybe the positions of the teacups you placed can help you figure out who our special guest is?
Teacup Placement Tutorial
If you’re a bit stuck on where to get started with this logic puzzle, this section is for you! I’ll describe my thought process of placing teacups on a slightly smaller table below. (Note that this is just an example, not part of the main puzzle.) Remember – there is only one valid solution to the puzzle, so no guessing is necessary!
1. Here’s the blank logic puzzle.
2. To start off, we can cross out the squares in the row and column that have zero cups.
3. The top row needs to have two cups and there are only two empty spaces… so that’s where the cups go! The same also applies to the third column.
4. We have one last cup to place. The first column needs one more cup, and that spoon in the second column needs a cup next to it… so we know where to put the final cup!
5. Finally, we can cross off the squares that surround the teacups – and we’re done!