USPuzzle Contest: 2 – Logic Puzzle

This week’s puzzle is a logic puzzle.  You get 1 point for an attempt, 2 points for mostly correct, or 3 points for a complete, correct answer.

Five friends (you may remember Adam, Beth, Carlos, Dan, and Elise from a fall semester puzzle) go out for dinner together.  They arrive at the restaurant one at a time and sit down around a circular table with five chairs.  The five dishes ordered that evening were Pasta (vegetarian), Quiche, Risotto (vegetarian), Steak, and Tomato soup (vegetarian).  Using the following clues, determine who arrived in what order, what they ate, and where they sat relative to each other (the table is circular, so each person had two neighbors).

• Except for the first person to arrive, each new guest sat down next to at least one previous guest.
• The two women arrived within moments of each other, but they did not sit next to each other.
• Both Dan and the first person to arrive are strictly vegetarian.
• The 2nd and 5th people to arrive ended up sitting next to each other.
• The person who ordered pasta sat next to either the person who ordered risotto or the person who ordered tomato soup, but not both.
• The person who ordered the steak sat to the immediate right of the man who ordered the quiche.
• One of the people sitting next to the 1st to arrive ordered steak.
• Carlos could never understand why the 5th person to arrive liked to put crackers in his tomato soup.
• Adam was 4th to arrive, and did not sit next to Beth or Carlos.

Good luck.  Send answers to usp.blogmatters@gmail.com.