State of Confusion

ePeterso2 — Tue, 05 May 2009 00:36:54 +0000

If you’re a geocacher, you’re probably a geography buff.

The 50 U.S. states contain a wealth of puzzle opportunities. There are so many different pieces of data available about all 50 states that making brainteasers and puzzles based upon them is fairly easy. There are a number of brainteasers in the widget on the right that deal with the U.S. states.

Listed below are the 50 U.S. states in order – in twelve different orders, that is! The first five and last five states in each list are shown, and it’s up to you to figure out what rule determines the ordering in each case. For example, one of the lists is ordered by population, another by land area.

This puzzle was originally published in Games Magazine, October 2002.

List 1	List 2	List 3
1. Alaska 2. California 3. Colorado 4. Washington 5. Wyoming … 46. Rhode Island 47. Mississippi 48. Louisiana 49. Delaware 50. Florida	1. California 2. Texas 3. New York 4. Florida 5. Illinois … 46. South Dakota 47. North Dakota 48. Alaska 49. Vermont 50. Wyoming	1. Hawaii 2. Florida 3. Texas 4. Louisiana 5. Mississippi … 46. Minnesota 47. Montana 48. Washington 49. North Dakota 50. Alaska

List 4	List 5	List 6
1. Delaware 2. Pennsylvania 3. New Jersey 4. Georgia 5. Connecticut … 46. Oklahoma 47. New Mexico 48. Arizona 49. Alaska 50. Hawaii	1. Alaska 2. Texas 3. California 4. Montana 5. New Mexico … 46. New Jersey 47. Hawaii 48. Connecticut 49. Delaware 50. Rhode Island	1. New York 2. California 3. Illinois 4. Texas 5. Pennsylvania … 46. Delaware 47. Maine 48. West Virginia 49. Wyoming 50. Vermont

List 7	List 8	List 9
1. Alaska 2. Alabama 3. Arkansas 4. Arizona 5. California … 46. Vermont 47. Washington 48. Wisconsin 49. West Virginia 50. Wyoming	1. New Jersey 2. Rhode Island 3. Massachusetts 4. Connecticut 5. Maryland … 46. South Dakota 47. North Dakota 48. Montana 49. Wyoming 50. Alaska	1. California 2. Louisiana 3-24. (22 states tied) … 46. Montana 47. Utah 48. New Mexico 49. Wyoming 50. Colorado

List 10	List 11	List 12
1. New York 2. Maryland 3. Georgia 4. Maine 5. Texas … 46. New Mexico 47. Illinois 48. Florida 49. Kansas 50. New Jersey	1. Alaska 2. Florida 3. California 4. Hawaii 5. Louisiana … 23-50. (28 states tied)	1. Nevada 2. Arizona 3. Colorado 4. Utah 5. Idaho … 46. Maine 47. Connecticut 48. Pennsylvania 49. West Virginia 50. North Dakota

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Puzzlehead » states

State of Confusion

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