Question

[perow1]

In a street there are 5 houses painted 5 different colors. In each house lives a person of a different nationality. The 5 homeowners each drink a different beverage, smoke a different brand of cigar, and keep a different pet.

The question is: Who keeps the fish?

HINTS:

1. The Brit lives in the red house.
2. The Swede has a dog.
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 has birds.
7. The owner of the yellow house smokes dunhills.
8. The man living in the center house drinks milk.
9. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
10. The man who smokes blends lives next to the one who has cats.
11. The man who has horses lives next to the man who smokes dunhills.
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 neighbor who drinks water.

Albert Einstein wrote this riddle in the early 20th century. He said that 98% of the population would not be able to solve it. Good Luck.


I guess there has to be a time limit and a rule that stops you from writing things down to make 98%!!! fail....
....but i admit it is a hard nut. So go ahed, write things down...
......and take your time.

 

[Oldsarge]

I don't have that much time left!

 

[Old Man Dave]

I just don't care. Sorry! :t

 

[Shadowkiller]

This is a puzzle given to computer students a lot. Mind you, it usually involves writing a program to solve it!

 

[Spaniard]

The Spaniard, they try and keep ALL the fidh rofl rofl

 

[Shadowkiller]

Got the answer!

Done it before, but in 1997...

It requires that you construct a grid to fill the information in.

Also assume that the houses go 1-5, left to right.

 

[land shark]

Dont touch that dial!

well be right back after a word from our sponsors.

 

[naiad]

Got the answer!

 

[Bill]

It cost me a little sleep last night but I finally figured it out, wish I had figured out the grid thing sooner.
Aloha
Bill

 

[Dobs]

I got it right too
However I'm sure 98% of people will actually fail if they are not allowed to use pen and paper.

 

[Shadowkiller]

In order to solve this without pen and paper (ie the grid) you need to to construct the grid in your mind.

Or use a boolean algebra type function.

Mind you, no one is really sure Einstein even came up with this, or that he ever said that only 98% of people can get it.

I'd back any computer programmer, engineer, crossword puzzler or sudoku lover to get it. All you need is logic.

 

[perow1]

Of course I can sense that Einstein did not really come up with this or make the statement. This is just one thing that makes a riddle more mythical...
....mentioning his name. Actually it bothers me alot when people are trying to give extra power to a statement by quoting Einstein or another hotshot. I just copied that line from where I got it. I got the answer, but with a pen and paper and i am not quite happy with my method. But it worked. I just started out from the facts and made the grid you are talking about.

One thing that botherd me is the talk about one house being to the left of the other. For me that just says that they are next to each other, but nothing about the order. It seems that you should take for granted that the house furthest to the left ist the first one. Strange to me. But it might just be something else that I missed that makes it uneccesary to make that assumption. I have another example in another riddle that makes another strange assumption...
....but it might just be me missing out on something.

 

[perow1]

My exaple of strange assumptions from another riddle:

Art, Bob, Cathy, Debbie, and Harold have last names Green, Ingram, Jones,
King, and Lathem.

Match the first and last names.

1. Jones is older than either of the other men but is younger than Green.

2. Debbie is younger than Harold but older than King and Art. (apparently Art and King cannot be the same person. If you assume that it makes the riddle alot more easy... BUT there is nothing in the text that says they cannot.)

3.Ingram is younger than Lathem.