Recently someone commented to me that they found it difficult to keep Berta's siblings straight. Which ones were married and not, and who was older and younger. As a result, I tried to think about the order that they all go in. I was surprised in that rather than reciting from memory the order of their ages, I had to think through a little logic puzzle to figure it all out.
In the interests of amusement, I present the puzzle here to answer the question, "Name Berta's siblings from oldest to youngest."
- Berta's brothers are John, Michael, and Stephen.
- Berta's sisters are Ellen, Emma, Mary Ann, and Therese.
- The genders of Berta's siblings alternate through the whole list, with Berta being the only exception. (That is to say, if you wrote B/G next to each name in the list, they would alternate as you went from name to name, except for the line Berta is on, which should say 'B'.)
- One of the girls is the oldest.
- Emma is older than Steve.
- John is older than Berta.
