QuoteThe original question posed by Einstein was “Who keeps the fish?â€
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 think that at the turn of the century, perhaps 98% of people couldn't solve this. However, in another forum I go to, at least 5 people have solved it already out of my estimated 15 who tried.
Try to figure it out. It might take a while, and if you get it I'm sure you'll be excited, but don't post it here, PM me and I'll tell you if you are correct. I want to see a realistic amount of people who can solve it.
Use Excel or some heavy Algebra for best results. It took a couple of sheets of paper for me to get it, and ~45 minutes thinking really hard.
It's not really that difficult, and I'd played it before.
Just use logic.
He asked for a PM Mr Gilbert, tut tut
The logic is rather involved though.. that's the catch. A lot of people would get hung up in it and not know what to do.
It's just complicated, not difficult, it can be solved easily with patient.
Precisely what I meant..
Some people took over 2 hours.
I have no paitence, ergo, I will not attempt to solve.
Losttravelor wrote a macro and solved it in ~15 minutes.
I feel dumb, I should have done that instead of the paperwork.
Hehehe I love computers
Do you send us confirmation if we get it correct, or wrong?
-MillsJROSS
Mills got it too.
Put in what I think it is, hope it's right.
LostTraveler: Using a computer isn't really working it out yourself, Einstein said 2% of people should be able to solve it, not 2% of people and their computers
Yep you were right.
QuoteLostTraveler: Using a computer isn't really working it out yourself, Einstein said 2% of people should be able to solve it, not 2% of people and their computers
Gotta admit he had some ingenuity there though, heh. He knew how to solve it but didn't want to spend as much time so he programmed a macro.
I think that with the results of this, it's way over 2%. In 1910, it would be different, but I was sort of using this to restore my faith in society. In fact people are smarter than they used to be, at least.
And technically, if 'figuring it out' simply means to name which house - I think more than 2% of the population can guess with the odds at 1/5.
Or at least that this style of puzzle has become more prevalent.
Edit: I managed to solve the riddle but not send a simple PM. Yay me.
Esseb, Kinoko, and Privateer Puddin' are added to the list.. and the first person to get it wrong, though I don't think I'll mention that.
So we've got:
Losttravelor
MillsJROSS
Goldenmonkey
Esseb
Privateer Puddin
Kinoko
And maybe Gilbert, but I dunno, because he never PM'd me.
I'm glad I'm not the only nerd who likes word puzzles.. I just saw the challenge, and I had that cocky attitude where I must figure out the answer or risk facing my own stupidity. At least I only have to face my stupidity in other subjects now. :D
I think I did it. I need confirmation but... Oh, I'll just -die- if I was wrong -_-
It took me about an hour and a couple of scraps of paper (I'm pretty methodical). I imagine most decently intelligent people would be able to do this these days, as long as their willing to take the time to work it out (and not on their computers >:)
I think that's the catch though, a lot of people would just give up after 5 minutes.
EDIT: WOOHOO! I'm smart!
Haha, you didn't read my post, or my PM. You PM'd me as I was typing that.
I think I got it? I hope I got it? :-\
I GOT IT!!!
Colonel Mustard in the Ballroom with the Giant Dildo!!!
Oh... wait...
It took me two minutes to solve it ... by googling "einstein riddle answer" :P
Shbazjinkens has been PMed!!!1 :)
cool riddle...pm'ed ya zbjienc#@#^&...whatever...
Quote from: EvenWolf on Tue 20/04/2004 07:30:38
And technically, if 'figuring it out' simply means to name which house - I think more than 2% of the population can guess with the odds at 1/5.
Duh, of course Einstein didn't know what he was talking about... He made very little money and I think the majority of people on this forum make more money than him..
Way to go Einstein...
Quote from: SSH on Tue 20/04/2004 13:15:28
It took me two minutes to solve it ... by googling "einstein riddle answer" :P
yet it still took you two minutes?!
Considering the riddle only states that the green house is to the left of the white house, not to the immediate left, there may be more than one solution. I'm too lazy to check or even google for it so I'll let the next bored person to read this thread figure out if there is.
Wow.. a lot more PM's. Now that that Google is mentioned, I guess I may as well post the answer. 11 People have worked it out now.
Losttravelor
MillsJROSS
Goldenmonkey
Esseb
Privateer Puddin
Kinoko
Mr_Frisby
Farlander
Blackbird
KaaZ
hX
Spoiler
It's the American
Spoiler
I mean.. the German.
1 Yellow Norweigan Water Dunhills Cats
2 blue Dane tea blends Horses
3 Red British milk Pall mall Birds
4 green German coffee Prince Fish
5 white Swede beer blue master Dog
QuoteFinally, you may want to notice that the young Albert Einstein (1879-1955) could not possibly have authored the puzzle in this form: The Pall Mall brand of cigarettes was introduced by Butler & Butler in 1899 (sold to American Tobacco in 1907 and Brown & Williamson in 1994) and Alfred Dunhill was established in 1893 (starting to manufacture pipes in 1907) when Einstein was still a young man. However, the Blue Master brand was introduced by J. L. Tiedemann in 1937, when Einstein was 58!
We've been told about a few recreational magazines (listed below) in which many such [rather boring] brain teasers could be found on a regular basis. This particular puzzle may well have originated in one of these, and would owe its enduring popularity to its apocryphal attribution to Einstein: Logica (French monthly), Dell Crosswords, Logic Problems (British), McCall's Magazine (1950's ?), PM (German), etc.
http://home.att.net/~numericana/answer/recreational.htm#einstein5 (http://home.att.net/~numericana/answer/recreational.htm#einstein5)
Since I'm an American, I most likely can't answer the question. Using that excuse, I won't even try.
Mmm... I think it's funnier to try to solve the riddle that googling for evidence about if it was or not invented by Einstein... ???
/me hopes Esseb doesn't read this...
;)
I already had my fun Farlander.
I don't know what you wrote as I haven't read it, I just felt like typing that.
Quote from: MrColossal on Tue 20/04/2004 19:18:16
Duh, of course Einstein didn't know what he was talking about... He made very little money and I think the majority of people on this forum make more money than him..
Way to go Einstein...
And I'm smarter than you, brainiac!
Listen, I could sit around all day trying to figure out how smart I am with dinky puzzles- but I'd much rather go out and make money, becoming smarter every minute!
Yes, the more money you have, the smarter you are. A good rule to live by.
._.
Quote from: Esseb on Tue 20/04/2004 19:50:58
Considering the riddle only states that the green house is to the left of the white house, not to the immediate left, there may be more than one solution. I'm too lazy to check or even google for it so I'll let the next bored person to read this thread figure out if there is.
Heh when I was solving it long ago, I was once confused on that part, not with immediate left or whatever, but that the riddle didn't state clearly whether the first house started from the left or from the right.
There are a couple of points that aren't totally clear. I stared blankly at that condition about the green house being "to the left" of the white one for a while. I went with my instinct and assumed it meant the immediate left and luckily that was right. I don't think (thought I'm not sure) that you can solve it by taking it the other way. It seems too non-specific, but maybe it can be done. Would anyone care to try? ^_-
I love this style of brain teaser, where you have to figure out a riddle based on a series of conditions. I managed to do this one when I was in grade six or seven, I can't remember.
Quote from: Kinoko on Wed 21/04/2004 04:32:53
I went with my instinct and assumed it meant the immediate left and luckily that was right.
This statement made me giggle. Left is right! Yay for paradoxes!
Heheh.. old one. Solved it. :P
The houses are in space, rotating in a spherical pattern that changes with each succeeding line, so the question is unsolvable.
haha that's easy jackass!
The american is the only one in space! Oooooh! Space pride!
--ok actually, who does have space programs?
USA, China, Russia and the EU all have the necessary equipment to send a man into space I believe.
Edit: Silly me, I forgot the one I built in my back yard.
Well, of coarse Russia does.
Brazil and India have had long running programs as well, and there's limited work, almost exclusively sattelite work, in Japan, which is largely collaborative with other countries.
and the ESA has shown skill in losing stuff on Mars, which had previously been the domain of the US and Soviet Union.
Has any of them lost men in their shuttles or the shuttles themselves yet like the US has?
Wouldn't it be great if someone incorporated one of these riddles into an adventure game? A really difficult one, in such a way that you can't just guess the answer, you have to do various things to "work it out" in the game.
Heh no, Rodekill was evil enough already.
He was?
When? (by that I really mean what game)
Rodekill.