THE ELEVATORS (Pages 76–77)

Can you work out the weight of each of the 8 suspects?

Stephen Cartwright = 250lbs

Sam Cooper = 130lbs

Bill Cooper = 140lbs Elizabeth

Knight = 260lbs

Mary Hawkins = 160lbs

Richard November = 160lbs

Earnest Robinson = 150lbs

Harriet Wheeler = 100lbs

We know from one of Bill’s statements that Harriet weighs 100lbs. We know from one of Harriet’s statements that Mary weighs 60lbs more than she does. Mary therefore weighs 160lbs. Harriet also says that she, Mary and Sam got into Lift 1 and it worked. We therefore know the combined weight of Harriet, Sam and Mary must be less than 400lbs (the limit of Lift 1). You can deduct Mary and Harriet’s weights from that and work out that Sam’s weight must be less than the remainder (140lbs). We also know from Harriet’s last statement that she travelled with Earnest and Sam and one of them was 130lbs and one was 150lbs but she can’t remember which is which. As we know Sam must be less than 140lbs she must be 130lbs and Earnest must be 150lbs.

From one of Bill’s statements we know that Sam weighs half what the director weighs, meaning Elizabeth must weigh 260lbs.

From Earnest’s statement we know he weighs 10lbs less than Richard which means Richard must weigh 160lbs. Earnest also says he, Bill, Mary and 30lbs of fossil samples weighed 20lbs less than the limit of Lift 3. Bill, Mary, Earnest and the fossil samples therefore have a combined weight of 480lbs; by subtracting the known weights of Mary, Earnest and the fossil samples we can work out that Bill weighs 140lbs.

From Richard’s earlier statement we know Bill, Stephen and Richard’s combined weight is exactly the weight limit of Lift 2 (550lbs); by subtracting the known weights of Bill and Richard we can work out that Stephen weighs 250lbs.