Read the given information carefully and answer the related questions: Six…
2024
Read the given information carefully and answer the related questions:
Six boxes - A, B, C, D, E and F are placed one above another. These boxes are of different types – Jute, Steel, Iron, Wood, Leather, Brass. All the information is not necessarily in the same order. Box D is placed three places above leather box. Same number of boxes are placed above box D and below steel box. Box B is placed just below box F and juts above wood box. Box A is placed two places below iron box. More than one box is placed below box C which is placed below brass box.
How many boxes are placed between brass box and box A?
- A.
None
- B.
Three
- C.
One
- D.
Two
- E.
Four
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
Concept
In a vertical stacking (floor) puzzle, fix a top-to-bottom scale and translate every clue into an exact position or a fixed gap before placing anything. A clue of the form "X is three places above Y" means there are two boxes strictly between them; "same number above one box as below another" is a symmetry equation that pins both to mirror positions; and "just above / just below" forces adjacency. Solve the most constrained clue first.
Application
The clue "same number of boxes above box D as below the steel box" forces D and the steel box into mirror positions. Combined with "box D is three places above the leather box" (which needs room for two boxes below D), the only mirror pair that fits is D at the very top and the steel box at the very bottom; seating D any lower leaves too few levels beneath it for the leather box. So D has 0 boxes above it and the steel box has 0 boxes below it.
With D at the top, "box D is three places above the leather box" then fixes the leather box at the 4th level from the top, which is the 3rd level from the bottom.
"Box B is just below box F and just above the wood box" forms the consecutive block F-B-wood, and "box A is two places below the iron box" links box A to the iron box with exactly one box between them. The only clash-free way to seat the F-B-wood block alongside the iron-A pair places box A on the 2nd level from the bottom (so box A is the wood box) with the iron box two levels above it; box B then lands on the leather level found earlier.
That leaves the remaining levels for the top of the stack. "More than one box is below box C, and box C is below the brass box" can only hold if box C takes the level just under D and D itself carries the brass type, since every other box is already pinned lower. The last unassigned type, jute, goes to box C.
All six boxes and six types are now fixed with no contradiction, completing the stack from top to bottom.
Final arrangement (top to bottom)
Level | Box | Type |
|---|---|---|
Top | D | Brass |
5 | C | Jute |
4 | F | Iron |
3 | B | Leather |
2 | A | Wood |
Bottom | E | Steel |
Cross-check
The brass box is on top and box A is on the 2nd level from the bottom. The boxes lying strictly between them are at levels 5, 4 and 3 — three boxes. Every clue holds, so the count between the brass box and box A is three.