Einstein's Riddle

[doone]

This one is referred to as Einstein's Riddle. The story goes that Einstein designed this puzzle and claimed that 98% of people on the planet would be unable to solve it.

There are no tricks in this riddle. You dont need any special knowledge to solve it, everything you need is provided right here:

1. In a street there are five houses, painted five different colours.
2. In each house lives a person of different nationality
3. These five homeowners each drink a different kind of beverage, smoke a different brand of cigar and keep a different pet.

The question is: Who owns the fish?

Clues:
1. The Brit lives in a red house.
2. The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
3. The Dane drinks tea.
4. The Green house is on the left of the White house.
5. The owner of the Green house drinks coffee.
6. The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds.
7. The owner of the Yellow house smokes Dunhill.
8. The man living in the centre house drinks milk.
9. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
10. The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats.
11. The man who keeps horses lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill.
12. The man who smokes Blue Master drinks beer.
13. The German smokes Prince.
14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
15. The man who smokes Blends has a neighbour who drinks water.

WARNING FROM VF21: If you want to try and figure this out, do it BEFORE you read any further in the thread.

 

[Padrino]

its really not that difficult, especially if you've got no time and are willing to make a quick graph (only a loser like me, i suppose ).

the answer is below (in white -- highlight to see):

the german

 

[doone]

Yeah, I actually did it without the graph, just doing it all in my head, don't know which way Einstein actually meant for it to be solved, although I don't think it really makes a difference. I love the song in your sig btw.

 

[Padrino]

hehe...graphs just help me do it faster.

and thanks about the sig. the song kicks ***. their whole new cd kicks ***. not quite as good as the first, but its mostly different than the first, and good in its own right.

 

[Bad Boy Bo]

The Norwegian owns the fish. Well, atleast I think. I placed all the possibilities, I found out that this doesn't completely tell you about who exactly owns what, but only a possibility. But you can guess everyone has this and that or could of this and that, but the Norwegian doesn't have any leads on any pets from what I got out of it.

 

[Mad D]

hehe...graphs just help me do it faster.

same answer, I remember doing those charts in middle school.

 

[ONEZERO]

they all own a fish

 

[quick dog]

its really not that difficult, especially if you've got no time and are willing to make a quick graph (only a loser like me, i suppose ).

the answer is below (in white -- highlight to see):e german

Do you mean a graph or a matrix? Explain the logic of your solution. I am one of the 98% that apparently approached the riddle from the wrong direction. I can see where it is going, but I could not make the connection with the house locations. Is this riddle based on a series of null hypotheses?

I have had a hard day. I cut brush for five hours in the heat. Maybe my brain is cooked.

 

[JonBoy418]

I've figured who lives where, what color, drink, pet, cigar.... everything.


I had the time, and made a graph as well.
More like a grid

5x5, in the upper corner I put each item and just went through a series of deductions, crossing off each one that I knew it could not be, until I was left with the correct one in a process of elimination.

 

[kingsgurl87]

I'm starting to get a headache...

 

[quick dog]

Padrino or Doone


Please explain yourself. What was your method.

Short of an explanation, I suspect a hoax.

 

[Padrino]

Padrino or Doone


Please explain yourself. What was your method.

Short of an explanation, I suspect a hoax.

check it out!

house order (left to right)
12345 house coloryellowblueredgreenwhite nationalitynorweigiandanebritgermanswede drinkwaterteamilkcoffeebeer cigar
dunhillblendpall mallprincebluemaster petcatshorsebirdsfishdogs

 

[Padrino]

well ****...it wont except a graph format. well..here's my explanation. best i can do.

6 rows: house order (from left to right), house color, nationality, choice of drink, choice of cigar, and pet. fill in information according to house order.

the answer looks like this:

house 4 (from left)

green
german
coffee
prince
fish

relatively simple setup. tough to explain w/o the visual. sorry i cant do much better.

 

[Bricklayer]

I always chart these things out along with a checklist as each clue is dealt with -- that question is basically right off the games section of the LSATs, and I am just nutty enough to think it was fun.

However, I won't spoil the "fun" for anyone who hasn't figured it out yet.


Doing it 100% in your head MIGHT be possible, but headache inducing.

 

[Bricklayer]

well ****...it wont except a graph format. well..here's my explanation. best i can do.

You are 100% correct, but maybe no spoil the fun?

 

[Padrino]

You are 100% correct, but maybe no spoil the fun?

hehe...gotchya.

 

[kings52/23]

what do ya knwo i got it right, but of course i had to write each thing down to figure it out

 

[HndsmCelt]

Yup, draw a matrix, begin eliminating options and in a short while you have a compleet picture and of coure the LAST pice of data is the Fish. Properly educated Middle school students should be able to do with no difficulty. It is doubtfull that Einstine created it, nor is it likely that only 2% of the population can solve it. But it IS a great logic excercise. Thanks!

 

[doone]

Padrino or Doone


Please explain yourself. What was your method.

Short of an explanation, I suspect a hoax.

Nope, it's not a hoax, by following the clues given, it's 100% possible to figure out exactly who has the fish. I just woke up though, so I'll try to put a walkthrough of sorts of how I did it in a couple hours.

 

[Bricklayer]

Ok look, no magic here. Like I say very similar, but somewhat less complicated questions of this nature pop all the time in logic sectiosn of standardized tests, logic puzzles etc.


1) You've got 6 variables, or rather one "constant" (the 5 houses), and 5 variables (color, nationality, beverage, cigar, and pet).

2) so you write down the numbers 1,2,3,4,5 across the top of the page to represent the constant (the houses) -- they are the columns.

3) then in the left hand margin you write down the words "colors" "nationality" "beverage" "cigar" and "pet" one above the other to create the rows.

4) then you go to your 15 clues and start working through them. Not in order mind you. In fact clues #8 and #9 are the first two you can use to start filling in the grid (since they aren't dependant on anything else but the houses). The next clue after that is #14, which you can figure out after clue #9. And so on. It eventually gets complex, but there is always one clue that keeps you moving forward.

Bit too much discipline for most junior high students, and even unfortunately a lto of high schoolers. But its really more about discipline and process than it is about brilliance.

 

[quick dog]

I blame my failure on five hours of ridiculous work in the 100-degree heat.

I just didn't want to spend any more time on it when we get so many tricks on the board. If you work hard on something and it turns out to be a joke, the joker wins.

All I had to suffer was the humiliation of pleading ignorance and demanding a proper solution. If anyone can do this without the matrix, that person ought to play chess. That's all I have to say.

 

[AleksandarN]

I think the ice breaker is the location of the houses once you figure that out It gets pretty simple

 

[Alacron]

OK, I almost gave up but persevered and got it in about 40 mins.

I figured out the order of the house colors fairly quickly (and the directly related items). Then the other info just started running together and I got frustrated, so instead of looking at the pieces literally, like German=Prince, Swede=dogs, and so forth, I made a key that would just tell me what type of info was needed on each house.
N=Nationality
B=Beverage
S=Smoke
P=Pets

So the German/Prince clue becomes NS, Swede/dogs becomes NP and so forth. Looking at the informational "holes" in the houses, (namely BP, NBS, SP, NSP, NBSP), it's relatively simple matter to arrange the "puzzle piece" clues into the only spaces they would fit, if that makes any sense.

The fifteenth clue about water is unnecessary, that was the last item filled in.
~~

 

[HndsmCelt]

Ok look, no magic here. Like I say very similar, but somewhat less complicated questions of this nature pop all the time in logic sectiosn of standardized tests, logic puzzles etc.


1) You've got 6 variables, or rather one "constant" (the 5 houses), and 5 variables (color, nationality, beverage, cigar, and pet).

2) so you write down the numbers 1,2,3,4,5 across the top of the page to represent the constant (the houses) -- they are the columns.

3) then in the left hand margin you write down the words "colors" "nationality" "beverage" "cigar" and "pet" one above the other to create the rows.

4) then you go to your 15 clues and start working through them. Not in order mind you. In fact clues #8 and #9 are the first two you can use to start filling in the grid (since they aren't dependant on anything else but the houses). The next clue after that is #14, which you can figure out after clue #9. And so on. It eventually gets complex, but there is always one clue that keeps you moving forward.

Bit too much discipline for most junior high students, and even unfortunately a lto of high schoolers. But its really more about discipline and process than it is about brilliance.

Well I never taught Middle school, but once upon a time I DID teach High School and had very little trouble teaching most of my students the basics of formal logic and symbolic logic. I used slightly simpeler test with 3 varibles and as a whole the did pretty well with only a few classes of instruction and practice.