Brain Teasers
Discount Coupon Shopper
Until last week, Mandy had been putting off the purchase of four major items for her home, waiting for her town's annual bargain days. Each year, the town's four main stores (including Nickels) each send out a coupon for a different percentage discount (10%, 15%, 20%, or 30%) on the purchase of a single item. Can you find the discount that Mandy received on each of her buys, and determine from which store she purchased each item?
Given:
Discounts: 10%, 15%, 20%, 30%
Store Names: Stears, Pal-Mart, Nickels, Dullard's
Appliances: Computer, Dishwasher, Lawnmower, VCR
Clues:
1) The percentage discount Mandy received on her new computer was twice that of the item she bought at Dullard's.
2) The discount on the Stears purchase was ten percentage points lower than the one on the riding lawnmower.
3) The discount on the dishwasher wasn't 15%.
4) Pal-Mart, (which didn't issue the 30% off coupon) isn't the store at which Mandy purchased the VCR.
Given:
Discounts: 10%, 15%, 20%, 30%
Store Names: Stears, Pal-Mart, Nickels, Dullard's
Appliances: Computer, Dishwasher, Lawnmower, VCR
Clues:
1) The percentage discount Mandy received on her new computer was twice that of the item she bought at Dullard's.
2) The discount on the Stears purchase was ten percentage points lower than the one on the riding lawnmower.
3) The discount on the dishwasher wasn't 15%.
4) Pal-Mart, (which didn't issue the 30% off coupon) isn't the store at which Mandy purchased the VCR.
Hint
Make a list of one set of givens and list another set of givens that would correspond to them. i.e (Discounts) -- (Store Names)10% -- Stears, Pal-Mart, Nickels, Dullard's
15% -- Stears, Pal-Mart, Nickels, Dullard's, etc.
Cross off what you know is NOT the correct answer from the clues, and when you find out a discount that fits a store name circle it, or write the information on a piece of paper in a different section to keep track. Do the same with the other correlations that can be surmised by looking at the clues:
(Discounts) -- (Appliances)
(Store Names) -- (Appliances)
Keep in mind, for example, that if you find a discount for a store, the other discounts can NOT be for the same store, so that gives you more options to mark off to narrow the correct answer down.
Answer
Stears -- Dishwasher -- 10%Pal-Mart -- Lawnmower -- 20%
Nickels -- Computer -- 30%
Dullard's -- VCR -- 15%
**Clue #1: According to this clue, we know that the computer discount couldn't be 10% or 15%. By the same token, the Dullard's discount can't be 20% or 30%. We also know that the computer wasn't bought at Dullard's.
**Clue #2: Here we know that the discount used on the lawnmower can not be 15% because the Stears discount has to be 10 points lower. Nor can it be 10% for the same reason. Which means that the Stears discount can only be 20% or 10%. The lawnmower was also not purchased at Stears.
**Clue #3: This clue is self explanatory. This leaves the VCR as the 15% discount. Which in turn makes the dishwasher the 10% discount.
**Clue #4: Pal-Mart didn't give out the 30%. Marking this off leaves Nickels as the 30% discount holder. The VCR was not bought at Pal-Mart.
*********We know that the Nickels discount was 30%. The only appliances that could be purchased with the 30% discount coupon are the lawnmower and the computer. So we can mark off the dishwasher and the VCR from Nickels. Since we know that the VCR was purchased with the 15% discount coupon, and Stears can not be the issuer of that coupon, the VCR was not purchased at Stears. Which leaves the VCR purchase at Dullard's, which we now know issued the 15% coupon. Now, from clue #1, we know that the computer discount is twice that of Dullard's. We know Dullard's is 15%, so the computer is 30%, and was purchased at Nickels. Marking these off leaves the dishwasher at Stears and the lawnmower at Pal-Mart. We know that the dishwasher is 10%, so we know that Stears is the 10% coupon issuer. This leaves Pal-Mart as the 20% coupon issuer.
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