1. US States Logic Game
by mrsmith
Can you work out which 25 US states
are featured in this logic game
without needing to guess?

2. Clue A1: The arrows show the direction in which each state must follow on to
the next in alphabetical order.
Clue C3: The only 2 state capitals which begin with the same 6 letters are
Columbus and Columbia, so A2 and D2 must be OHIO and SOUTH CAROLINA
(in that order).

3. Clue A2: The only state which begins with the same 3 letters as Columbus is
COLORADO, so this must be the state referred to in Clue A2. Given that each state is in
alphabetical order around a clockwise spiral, the only place that Colorado can be is B1.
Clues B1 & D2: If all 3 ‘D’ capital states are in the quiz, apart from Colorado, these
must be Delaware and Iowa. The only one of these which can be adjacent to Colorado
- if there are at least 19 different starting letters amongst the 25 states in the quiz
[Clue B1] - is DELAWARE.

4. Clue B1: Further to the logic of Clue B1, all of the states which start with unique letters
must be in the quiz, so this means that DELAWARE, FLORIDA, GEORGIA, HAWAII,
LOUISIANA, PENNSYLVANIA, RHODE ISLAND and UTAH will feature somewhere.
FLORIDA and GEORGIA will therefore find themselves in D1 and E1 respectively.
Clue C1: This confirms that Georgia is OK to go in E1, as it has more vowels that
consonants.

5. Clue B1: We already know that HAWAII must be in the quiz, so logically, this must be in
E2.
Clue D1: There are only 3 states with ‘D’ capitals, and we have already inserted
Colorado and Delaware. This must mean that E5 is IOWA.
Clue A1 & C1: The two remaining states in column 5 must come alphabetically in
between Hawaii and Iowa. They must also have more vowels than consonants. This
rules out Illinois (4+4), so therefore, E3 and E4 must be IDAHO and INDIANA
respectively.

6. Clue E1: The only state other than South Carolina that begins with ‘South’ is
SOUTH DAKOTA, so this must be in D3.
Clue D3: The state in A5 ends with ‘-ota’, so it could be North Dakota or
Minnesota.
Clue E2: The letters of B5 can be found in the letters of A5. No state can be
written using letter in North Dakota, so A5 must be MINNESOTA. The state
whose letters can be found in those of Minnesota is MAINE, so this is in B5.

7. Clue B1: We know that LOUISIANA must be in the quiz and that there is at
least one ‘K’ state, so the former must be in C5.
Clue E4: The state in D5 does not border Indiana, so this rules out Kentucky.
D5 is, therefore, KANSAS.

8. Clue B1: We already know that PENNSYLVANIA and RHODE ISLAND (as the only ‘P’ and
‘R’ states) must be in the quiz. You might have worked this out earlier, but as there are
only two spaces between Ohio and South Carolina, these must fit into B2 and C2
respectively.
Clue E5: Each letter in ‘IOWA’ is found in the state in B3. The only state to which this
applies is WASHINGTON, so this must be in B3.
Clue D5: Each letter in ‘OHIO’ can be found in the state in A3. The state must be
somewhere alphabetically in between Minnesota and Ohio. The only possibility is
NORTH CAROLINA, so this is in A3.

9. Clue A3: NEW MEXICO and TEXAS are the only two states with an X, so the former must
be in A4 (following the logic of clue A1). We also know that there must be at least one
‘U’ state and one ‘V’ state (Clue B1), so this puts TEXAS in D4. The only ‘U’ state is UTAH,
so this must be in C4, (which is also confirmed by clue C5, as the letters of ‘UTAH’ can be
found in ‘South Carolina’ and ‘South Dakota’).
Clue B5: The states named in honour of Queen Elizabeth I are Virginia and West Virginia.
If these are ruled out, B4 must be VERMONT, as it is the only remaining ‘V’ state.