parade.com/logic

parade.com/logic

TEST YOUR LOGIC

Readers: Alec forms a celebrity dad’s club. Brad, Tom, and Matt join, plus others. None of them likes each other, so Alec decides that committees will have only three members, and that every dad will have to see every other dad at a committee meeting only once. Everyone likes this idea, and Alec appoints them all to a committee. Assuming the smallest possible club membership, how many committees were formed?

Answer: We know the club has at least six members. Let’s call two of them David and Patrick. Can they form committees with three members, yet see each other only once? No. Say Alec meets with Brad and Tom. Then he meets with Matt and David. He couldn’t meet with Patrick and not see one of the other dads a second time.