Posted by ros on March 21, 1999 at 13:57:36 {MWiPgYg2nZn0g}:
APTITUDE TEST FOR LOGICAL DEDUCTION.
As mentioned in the thread below, this problem can be solved algebrically, but the answer is intuitively obvious to some people (usually certain so-called "right brainers"). NOTE: This is not a trick question, and none of the necessary information for solving the puzzle is missing. If you're a good abstract reasoner, you may see the answer almost immediately.
GIVEN:
* A man and his wife live in the country.
* The man works in
the city, and communicates each
day to and from the country on a train.
* Each workday morning the man's wife drives him to the train station. And each evening she drives to the train station to pick him up and drive him home.
(For the purpose of this puzzle, assume that these people are ultra punctual. The man invariably catches the same train and the train is always on time. And the wife always leaves the house at precisely the same time.)
* The man's wife would leave the house every evening at precisely the time it would take to arrive at the train station at 4:30 p.m. when the train stopped and her husband got off. He would get into the car and they drove home.
* One day, the man's boss let him leave work early. He left and caught an earlier train.
* Therefore, he arrived at the train station early and quite naturally his wife was not there yet. So he began to walk home.
* On his way home, his wife came upon him on her way to the train station to pick him up. He got into the car at that point, she turned around, and they got home 10 minutes early.
QUESTION:
What time did the man's wife pick him up?