Philosopher's Stone Solution

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The biggest problem with this puzzle (aside from the lack of sufficient information) is that some of the clues can be interpreted in more than one way (Thanks to Jim Manhart for pointing this out to me). Because of this ambiguity, I'll show the solution under each combination of assumptions about the clues:

Solution 1

  1. All poisons are somewhere to the left of at least one wine
  2. The potions at either end are different, neither one is the ahead potion
  3. The potions in positions 2 and 6 are the same (both wines or both poisons)
  4. Two visually different potions do not contain poison (though we don't know their positions)
  5. Knowledge of the position of the two non-poison potions gives enough information to deduce uniquely the positions of the ahead and back potions. (Hermione solved it.)

Solution 2

  1. Each wine has one poison immediately to the left.
  2. Same as solution 1
  3. Same as solution 1
  4. Same as solution 1
  5. Same as solution 1

Solution 3

  1. Same as solution 1
  2. Same as solution 1
  3. "Twins" means that the potions in positions 2 and 6 are wine since if they were poison then the riddle would have said "Triplets."
  4. Same as solution 1
  5. Same as solution 1

Solution 4

  1. Each wine has one poison immediately to the left.
  2. Same as solution 1
  3. "Twins" means that the potions in positions 2 and 6 are wine since if they were poison then the riddle would have said "Triplets."
  4. Same as solution 1
  5. Same as solution 1

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Email: dave@tenletters.com