Chapter 4

USE MATRIX LOGIC

67

44

Use Matrix Logic

I

f you use a matrix, or two-dimensional chart, to organize theinformation in a problem, you can more easily use the process of elimination in a systematic way. In their study of the chemicalprocesses of living organisms, such as the regulation of metabolism,biochemists use matrix logic to organize various chemicalcompounds and reactions.

2722_KC_Johnson_Ch04 9/22/03 10:56 AM Page 67

ne way to improve your logical reasoning ability is to solvelogic problems. These problems are fun and challenging.Most grocery stores and drugstores carry booklets or magazines thatare full of logic problems. Three such magazines are

Games

and

World of Puzzles,

published by Games Publications, and

Dell Math Puzzles and Logic Problems,

published by Dell Publications. The basic idea behindlogic problems is to solve them by matching items in various categories.For example, you might match the ﬁrst and last names of a list of people, their favorite foods, their favorite colors, and the pets theyown, or you might match each person’s name with a kind of carand an occupation. Generally speaking, these problems get harderas more people or more categories are added.Most logic problems can be solved by using a chart or a table thatwe will call a

matrix.

A matrix helps organize the information in aproblem in a useful way and facilitates eliminating possibilities, whichis an important strategy for solving logic problems. Many people usematrices to solve problems in their work. Using a

logic matrix

sets upa

one-to-one correspondence

between the elements in a problem.This is a standard feature of most logic problems. In the next problem,for example, each person has one favorite sport.

FAVORITE SPORTS

Ted,Ken,Allyson,and Janie (two married couples) each have a favorite sport:running,swimming,biking,and golf.Given the following clues,determine wholikes which sport.1.Ted hates golf.He agrees with Mark Twain that golf is nothing but agood walk spoiled.2.Ken wouldn’t run around the block if he didn’t have to,and neither would his wife.3.Each woman’s favorite sport is featured in a triathlon.4.Allyson bought her husband a new bike for his birthday to use in hisfavorite sport.Use the following matrix to work this problem before continuing.Usean

X

to represent no and an

O

to represent yes.

O

68

CHAPTER 4

2722_KC_Johnson_Ch04 8/20/03 11:58 AM Page 68

Noticethat the top and left side of the matrix are labeled with themain categories given in the problem: names and sports. This matrixlabels sports on top and names on the left side, but it could have beenset up the other way around. If the problem featured more categories,you’d need more matrices. (You will see examples of this later in thechapter.)Here’s how Damon solved the Favorite Sports problem.“First I set up my chart [matrix], with the names on the side and thesports up on top. Then I read through the clues. Clue 1 said that Teddidn’t like golf. So that eliminated Ted from being the golfer. I put an

X

in the Ted-golf space. I also put a 1 next to this

X

to show that I hadeliminated this possibility by using clue 1.“Clue 2 said that Ken wouldn’t run around the block. So I ﬁguredthat Ken wasn’t the runner, and I put an

X

2

in the Ken-running space.The clue also said Ken’s wife wasn’t the runner, but I didn’t knowwho his wife was, so I left this part of the clue for later.“The third clue said that the women like sports featured in thetriathlon. The only sport in the list that isn’t featured in the triathlonis golf, so I put

X

3

’s in the Allyson-golf and Janie-golf spaces.”