Harry Potter's Potions Puzzle

by Hugh McGuire & Andrius Tamulis



An engaging, didactic puzzle involving reasoning and counting is presented in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, by J. K. Rowling.  Given seven unlabeled bottles containing poisons or wines or desired potions, and with a scroll providing clues, one needs to determine what each bottle contains.  This puzzle can serve as an engaging in-class exercise, or homework exercises can explore different aspects of this puzzle involving counting (permutations/combinations) and reasoning.

Beyond the niftiness of the puzzle itself and the popular appeal of Harry Potter, another value of this puzzle involves the need to encourage women in Computer Science.  Using this puzzle in a course on Discrete Mathematics for CS may encourage young women to enter this field because the character in Harry Potter who solves this puzzle is a young girl.

  • in-class exercise developed by Hugh McGuire

  • http://faculty.stritch.edu/atamulis/Potter/PoisonProblem.pdf

    References

    1. Roger Howe, Hermione Granger's Solution, Mathematics Teacher 95 (2002), 86-89.

    2. J.K.Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Scholastic Press, 1998.