Take two: Solving a math problem in Access or Excel ?

Question

I should mention that this is from my Calc AB class, so its going to be hard. Here is the problem:
At the start of a seminar on self-esteem, the group leader passed around a questionnaire about the self-help books that each person had read. Each of the fifteen participants (including Julie) had read at least one of the seven books (All about me, Hooray for me, I Count, I Deserve the Best, I’m my own Boss, I’m Number One, and Lucky Me) . Can you match each participant with the book or books he or she has read?
1. each book has been read by at least one person, but no 2 of the books have been read by the same number of people, and no 2 people have read the same combination of books.
2. the 15 people have read a total of 45 books, and within those 45 books, the number of people who have read a certain number of books is the same as the number of people who have read any other number of books(example. # of people who read 3 books = # of people read 4)

3. No 2 people with alphabetically consecutive names have read the same number of books , and in only one instane have as many as 3 people (but no more than 3 people) with alphabetically consecutive names read the same book.
4. More people have read "I'm my own boss" than any other book; "I Count" had the fewest readers.
5. Lynn read more of the books on the list than Noreen, who read one more book than Ellen; each of these three have read fewer books than Inez.
6. Don, harry, and Kaye have all benefitted from reading "Hooray for Me".
7. Amy and Cassie discovered that they had both read "All about Me" and had 2 other books in common; Noreen and Otis have both read "Lucky me" and had two other books in common; there is only one book on the list that all four of these people have read.
8. The #s of peopel who have read "I deserve the best". "Lucky me", "hooray for me", and "im my own boss" are 4 consecutive #s in order lowest to highest; 1 person (but not Inez) who has read all 4

of these books has also read "im number one"
9. The 4 people who have read "im number one" are Ellen, fred, harry, and Inez
10. Ben has read "Hooray for me"; marty has read only "all about me" and "I deserve the best"
11. Among them, Cassie, ellen, and kaye have read all seven of the books, but none of these women have read any of the same books ; if either Amy or Gloria has read "lucky me", then the other one has not.
12. Gloria hasnt read "im my own boss"; no one who has read more than three of the books on the list read "i count"
13. Don and Marty read only one book in common, and Harry and Lynn read only one book in common.
14. Fred and Otis have read no more than three books in common (if any)

and there you go. That its. if any one knows how to solve it please help! thankyou!

Answer 1

This is called a logic puzzle.

You could use Excel to help you solve it...but only because Excel is good at making tables. Neither Excel nor Access could be used to programmatically arrive at an answer, I'm fairly certain.

You would put the names of the 7 books across the top and the 15 people down the side, and use symbols (X and - or Y and N) to indicate that the person has read the book.

This one is even more complicated than most, though, because each person has read more than one book, so you can't cross out rows and columns when you find a match like you would in most of these.

I enjoy these, and I'm willing to give it a shot, but you really should try it on your own. It's a valuable exercise in logical thought.

Send me an email or an IM.

Answer 2

Not being good in math will be hard, especially in a traditional CS degree program which actually has a lot more mathematical models and a lot less programming than you might think. If particularly interested in programming, perhaps a applied college program is more your thing. But even there, there's a lot of math potentially involved (graphics for games = rather complex matrix algebra) and certainly logic. Doesn't mean you can't do it, but it's not easy - lots of work.