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  • An albatross delivered your invitation, you've acquired your wand,

  • ridden the enchanted zeppelin, made some fast friends,

  • and are finally ready for the adventure you've dreamed of your entire life:

  • your first day at Magnificent Marigold's Magical Macademy.

  • But before you can learn your first spell

  • you must get through the most nerve-wracking moment of the year:

  • the sorting ceremony.

  • When you put on the sorting hat, you hear a voice.

  • Ah, you're an interesting one.

  • Every year I choose one student for a special challenge, and I choose you.

  • The Magical Macademy had 8 founders,

  • and they established our four houses two by two by two by two.

  • I alone know which witches founded which.

  • But there was once a mysterious fifth house,

  • lost to time but full of secrets and powerful artifacts.

  • MMMMMM?

  • If you can tell me who founded each house, I'll sort you into whichever you want.

  • However, if you can also tell me the name of the secret 5th house,

  • I'll let you sort into it,

  • and you'll inherit everything you discover.

  • The two founders of each house wore different colored hats

  • with non-matching symbols.

  • No founder started more than one house.

  • Of Funflame and Imaginez, one was a founder of Gianteye

  • and the other of Longmous.

  • And of Miraculo and Rimbleby,

  • one established Longmous and the other Meramaid.

  • Finally, Septimus didn't found Vidopnir.”

  • Sowho founded what, and what's the name of the secret house?

  • Pause the video now to figure it out for yourself!

  • Answer in 3

  • Answer in 2

  • Answer in 1

  • The hardest part of solving this logic puzzle is knowing where to start.

  • No rule by itself is enough to assign a founder to his or her house,

  • so the next best thing

  • would be to combine a pair of rules to learn something.

  • 4 and 5 are good candidates to try that with,

  • because they contain a lot of constraints and both mention Longmous.

  • Miraculo and Rimbleby's hats both have moons,

  • which means that no matter who ends up in Longmous,

  • moons will be accounted for.

  • That means Imaginez, who also has moons, can't have founded Longmous,

  • so she's in Gianteye and Funflame founded Longmous.

  • Miraculo's hat is red, so he can't be there,

  • so he must be in Meramaid and Rimbleby in Longmous.

  • Halfway there!

  • Now we can place Septimus––

  • rule 6 keeps him out of Vidopnir, and his yellow hat out of Gianteye,

  • so he must be in Meramaid.

  • Of the founders left, Deepmire and Hypnotum both have stars.

  • So each must go into a different house,

  • taking up the remaining space in Gianteye and leaving one spot open in Vidopnir,

  • which Tremenda must fill.

  • Tremenda's blue hat keeps Deepmire out of Vidopnir,

  • so we can easily place her and, finally, Hypnotum.

  • Now that those founders are sorted,

  • we can start to search for the secret house.

  • If you don't have it yet, here are a few hints:

  • Pause the video now if you want to figure it out yourself!

  • One good strategy for a puzzle like this

  • is to look for patterns or unusual pieces of information.

  • First of all, there's the school's obsession with the letter M,

  • right down to its motto, which translates from Latin to “M is a magic letter.”

  • Curiously, every founder has exactly one M in their name,

  • and each M is in a different position.

  • That means that the M's can put them in order, 1 through 8.

  • We know we needed to solve the logic puzzle before finding the secret house,

  • so there must be something critical

  • about the connection between the founders and their houses.

  • Here's where a pattern emerges: every founder and house

  • have exactly the same number of letters.

  • This allows the founders to line up with their houses quite nicely.

  • The first letters don't spell anything,

  • but let's look at the M's in the names again and the letters they line up with:

  • M, I, N, O, T, A, U, R.

  • You shout outMINOTAURto a stunned dining hall,

  • and a secret passage grinds open.

  • The wonders of house Minotaur are yours if you want them.

  • But being the first and only resident of the secret house

  • would come at a high price: loneliness.

  • So which will it be: riches or friendship?

An albatross delivered your invitation, you've acquired your wand,

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