Setup and Rule Diagrams

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Setup and Rule Diagram Explanation

This is a Basic Linear: Defined, Unbalanced, Overloaded, Identify the Templates game.

The scenario asks us to select exactly five of six neighborhoods, and determine the order in which these neighborhoods will be visited in one week (Monday through Friday):

H L N O P S 6

PT79_Game_#1_setup_diagram 1.png

Because the exact number of variables to be selected is a given, the game is Defined. It is also Unbalanced-Overloaded, as the number of available variables is greater than the number of available spaces.

With all the rules drawn out, our initial diagram looks like this:

PT79_Game_#1_setup_diagram 2.png

The following inferences should be made:

• If L is visited (on Wednesday), then the OH-Block cannot be placed anywhere in our setup: placing the block on Thursday/Friday would violate the first rule prohibiting H from being visited on Friday, whereas placing the OH-Block on Monday/Tuesday would force N and S to occupy adjacent positions on Thursday/Friday, in direct violation of the last rule.
  
  Therefore, if L is visited, then O cannot be visited:

PT79_Game_#1_setup_diagram 3.png

• If L and O cannot both be visited, then clearly either L or O is the neighborhood that is not visited. This presents an opportunity to create the following four rough templates based on the placement of the OH block (note that this game can be attacked without the use of templates, but they are included here for reference):

PT79_Game_#1_setup_diagram 4.png

Interestingly, the four templates reveal that P—which is a random variable this game—is always visited, but never on Wednesday. However, for better or worse, none of the questions test this inference directly.