Have you tried Einstein's Impossible Riddle?

[jmowreader]

Einstein wrote the following riddle. He said that 98% of the world could not solve it. But several NIEHS scientists were able to solve it, and they said it's not all that hard if you pay attention and are very patient. Give it a try:

There are 5 houses in 5 different colors in a row. In each house lives a person with a different nationality. The 5 owners drink a certain type of beverage, smoke a certain brand of cigar, and keep a certain pet. No owners have the same pet, smoke the same brand of cigar, or drink the same beverage. Other facts:
1. The Brit lives in the red house.
2. The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
3. The Dane drinks tea.
4. The green house is on the immediate left of the white house.
5. The green house's owner drinks coffee.
6. The owner who smokes Pall Mall rears birds.
7. The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill.
8. The owner living in the center house drinks milk.
9. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
10. The owner who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats.
11. The owner who keeps the horse lives next to the one who smokes Dunhill.
12. The owner who smokes Bluemasters drinks beer.
13. The German smokes Prince.
14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
15. The owner who smokes Blends lives next to the one who drinks water.

The question is: WHO OWNS THE FISH?

(I tried this last night. This is actually pretty easy if you make five columns each containing:

List of Nationalities
List of House Colors
List of Beverages
List of Cigars
List of Pets

Then as you deduce each fact, cross off the ones that don't pertain...you can start by crossing "Norwegian" off every column but the first and the other four nationalities from the first column.)

Enjoy!

[arcane1]

1. This looks like fun!!

[JimDandy]

2. Used 'House Positions' as a column also.

Seems to me to be the most important column to have. Still, it took me 37 minutes to get the answer even using all those columns. Was fun. Lots of these types of logic puzzles are on the test to get into law school.

A 2% solve rate seems way too low. Wonder how he arrived at that rate of 98%?

[jmowreader]

3. You don't really need a house positions column

If you make five columns each with all that information, "house columns" is going to come out on its own.

[JimDandy]

4. Perhaps that's why it took me so long

because I worked to solve the house positions first in conjunction with the colors. All the rest fell into place after those.

The 2% still bugs me, because simply guessing should results in 20% of the answers being correct. And knowing the author of the riddle, using psychology should increase the percent even more.

[fishwax]

9. note that it's 2% can solve, not 2% can get the right answer

You're right about guessing, but that's not quite the same as actually solving it. (Of course, that still doesn't explain where the 2% comes from ...)

[JimDandy]

14. Good distinction. n/t

[Jackpine Radical]

11. I don't think guessing will result in 20% correct.

To get the first one correct requires you to make 4 choices of attribute for the first house, each with a 1/5 probability of being right, and so on. I'm too rusty at permutations & combinations to calculate it all, but the odds are a lot less than 20% of getting them all correct.

[JimDandy]

15. You'd be right if you had to get all the categories correct.

But here it just asks which owner (by nationality) has the fish. So on a law school entrance exam you'd simply have five answer choices to pick from: Norwegian, Swede, Brit, Dane, or German...hence a 20% chance of getting the correct answer, right?

[Jackpine Radical]

16. Duh.

Yes.

[hopemountain]

5. perfect as a sticky wall exercise/riddle

thanks!

[Kaleva]

6. Took me about 40 minutes.

I really enjoy logic problems.

[krispos42]

7. I think I know

The German in the green house, fourth from the left, who also drinks coffee and smokes Prince.

[CrispyQ]

8. Looks like a logic puzzle.

I love them! I'll try this one tonight.

Thanks!

http://www.logic-puzzles.org/

[lastlib]

10. I saw a variation of this, traced back to a 1963 Reader's Digest.

The solution (yes, I solved it years ago....) lies in first getting the order of the house colors right, then filling the blanks with the known/deduced information. Somewhere along the way, you have to make a wild guess and then test it, to see which facts it doesn't fit. I haven't worked thru this variation yet, but it's somewhat familiar territory......

[Kaleva]

12. I don't think one has to guess at all

I made a 5 X 5 column on a piece of paper. In the most left vertical column, I listed in each square the nationalities. In the next vertical column, I listed in each square the five colors, followed by drink, smokes, and then pets.

Looking at the clues, I then cross out what doesn't apply until I'm left with the answer.

[lastlib]

13. Maybe not, I'm just going from a vague memory....

[Special Prosciuto]

17. I tried this over and over again

expecting different results.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

18. No, but I've tried Epstein's note from Epstein's mother.

It was impossible. The riddle was how in the heck did I charm the attendance secretary all the time??.

[Blue_Tires]

19. Einstein didn't write this

I saw this same puzzle in a book I had as a kid (I remember it because I'd never heard of the cigarette brands) and it was never attributed to Einstein....