Santa's Workshop Word Problem, Driving me crazy!

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Every time I work this I have a problem with it.

Find the color, toy and amount each elf is responsible for.

Santa's pack holds 30 toys.
No elf has made the same amount but each elf has made at least two toys.
The elf named Sher made 1 more toy than the elf dressed in red, but Sher made 1 less toy than the elf who made the sleds.
Johnny made the cars.
5 toys were made by Jane.
The elf dressed in yellow made the trains.
The elf dressed in green made 1/3 as many as Sue.
Marsha is dressed in orange.
Another elf is dressed in blue.
The elf who made the tops made the most toys.
Another elf made each and every ball.

I believe the toy numbers are 3,4,5,6 and 12. But when I work the colors and toys without trying to explain myself I have problems.
Thanks for any help.
 
bigskyguy said:
Every time I work this I have a problem with it.

Find the color, toy and amount each elf is responsible for.

Santa's pack holds 30 toys.
No elf has made the same amount but each elf has made at least two toys.
The elf named Sher made 1 more toy than the elf dressed in red, but Sher made 1 less toy than the elf who made the sleds.
Johnny made the cars.
5 toys were made by Jane.
The elf dressed in yellow made the trains.
The elf dressed in green made 1/3 as many as Sue.
Marsha is dressed in orange.
Another elf is dressed in blue.
The elf who made the tops made the most toys.
Another elf made each and every ball.

I believe the toy numbers are 3,4,5,6 and 12. But when I work the colors and toys without trying to explain myself I have problems.
Thanks for any help.
Click to expand...

I'm trying to think this one out. For starters we know all of the elves' names.
. . .
Sher
Johnny
Jane
Marsha
Sue
. . .
We know the toys that were made.
. . .
sleds
cars
trains
tops
balls
. . .
We know that Johnny made the cars, and the elf dressed in yellow made the trains.
. . .

We also know the colors that they are wearing.
. . .
yellow
red
green
orange
blue
. . .
And, we evn know that Marsha is wearing orange. So, what else do we know. What are we told about the toys? We know that the total amount of toys will be 30. We also have random equations to work with.
. . .
The elf wearing green made 1/3 of what Sue made.
Sher made 1 more toy than the elf dressed in red
Sher made 1 less toy than the elf that made the sleds.
 
I did copy the problem wrong, but nothing that really changed my workings. Each elf made more than 2 toys, or no less than 3.
My problem comes when I try to plug in were the yellow and train go.
Here's what I have:
Sher made 4 toys and is green
Johnny made the race cars.
Marsha is dressed in orange.
Sue made 12 tops.
Jane made 5 sleds.

This is were my problem comes in, who ever is yellow also makes the trains, all the elves already have a color or toy.
 
Thanks Galactus, how come is is so obvious when you know the answer?
 
I like to make a grid of 5 by 5 squares that is 4 by 4.
Write the names, toys, colors etc down the side and across the top. When you know something put an X in the two intersections and O in the rest of the squares in that row and column of the 5 by 5 square. The diagonal would be filled with
Code: 
XOOOO
OXOOO
OOXOO
OOOXO
OOOOX
'cause you know red is red for instance.
From the sentence
Sher made 1 more toy than the elf dressed in red, but Sher made 1 less toy than the elf who made the sleds.
You put An O in the intersection of Sher and red
Sher and sleds
Sher and lowest number
Sher and higest number
You keep that up through all the sentences.
When you get 4 O's in a row or column you put an X in the blank.
When you get two X's in the same row or column you copy that column or row from the other squares.
Eventually you should end up with all the squares filled in and that's the answer.
I tried to type the grid but...
 
Thanks Gene. I did something similar, but your way is better.
Where my problem existed was with the numbers. I started with 3,4,5,6,12 and things just would not work. Once I used 3,5,6,7 & 9 thing fell into place.
Also thanks Lizzie for taking a look.
 
I forgot the O in red and sled. That's the hard part. Squeezing every thing out of the sentence.
I abandoned the problem when the answer post came in. The numbers I considered to be in increasing order and hoped that they would become obvious when every thing was filled in.
 
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