Logical chemical puzzle #10
Carlos Mauricio Castro-Acuña <[email protected]>
Depto. de Fisicoquimica, Facultad de Química
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
04510 D.F., México
(Back by popular request is another Logical Chemical Puzzle.
Thanks, Carlos, for another puzzle in this series – a fun puzzle
for a Sunday afternoon. A book prize will go to the winner
drawn from submissions received by August 7, 2007. Send your
solution to Chem 13 News, Logical chemical puzzle #10,
Chemistry Department, University of Waterloo, Waterloo ON
N2L 3G1, fax 519-888-9168, e-mail [email protected].)
A Canadian teacher who spent some years in Puebla, a nice
Mexican city, is now running a business to send chemical
products to well-known cities in Canada, the USA and Mexico.
For May 2007 this teacher has six packages containing two
chemical products each — one amino acid and a small sample
of a chemical element. Each package is to be sent to one of six
different cities. Unfortunately a system failure has occurred and
now the orders are mixed up, but at least it is known that the
letters A, G, H, P, S and V are the initials of the cities’ names, as
well as the initials of the chemical names of the substances. In
the case of the amino acids the letter that indicates the L or D
isomers is not considered. Your mission is to help the teacher
by using the following clues to identify the six amino acids and
six elements in each package and the six cities to which they
should be delivered.
1. In each package, the amino acid, the element, and the city
they are to be sent to all have different initials.
Element
Amino Acid
City
Alphabet soup
A junior school science teacher asked the following test
question. Write the chemical formula for water. One students in
the class wrote: “H I J K L M N O.” When the teacher quizzed
the student about the answer, the student replied:“It is H to O”
(H2O).
Chem 13 News, October 1980, Sent in by G. White, Ingle Farm
High School, Belalie Road, Ingle Farm, South Australia.
2. Considering the six elements involved in this puzzle, the one
with the highest atomic number is paired with the amino acid
that has four carbon atoms and three oxygen atoms in its
molecule.
3. The amino acid C9H11NO2, present in many sugar free
products, is not with holmium and it’s not being sent to
Guadalajara.
4. Considering the six elements involved in this puzzle, the one
with the lowest atomic number is not being sent to Puebla
and it’s not with the amino acid that contains three nitrogen
atoms in its molecule.
5. The simplest amino acid (formula weight = 75.07) is being
sent with an element that has two common allotropes —
white and red.
6. A precious metal should go to Seattle but aluminum is not
intended for a nice Canadian city on the west coast.
7. The lanthanide and a compound with just two oxygen atoms
in its molecule should be sent to a famous Mexican beach
resort on the Pacific coast.
8. A metal that is used traditionally in jewelry produced in
Taxco, a beautiful colonial town in Mexico, has as its
destination a big city in the south of Texas. ∎
May 2007/CHEM 13 NEWS 3