18 September 2007

The Einstein Quiz

Albert Einstein said that 98% of the people in the world can not solve the following puzzle. I have no idea if that’s true, but I’m willing to give Einstein the benefit of the doubt. :o)

I think this puzzle is tough, but fair. It was slow going at first, but once the pieces started fitting it went quickly. I needed 40-45 minutes to solve it [on my ::cough:: first ::cough:: try--kudos to me! ;o)].

So without further ado, on to the question.

The Einstein Quiz: Who has the fish?

Facts:

  1. There are 5 houses in 5 different colors.
  2. In each house lives a person with a different nationality.
  3. These 5 owners drink a certain beverage, smoke a certain brand of cigar and keep a certain pet.
  4. No owners have the same pet, smoke the same brand of cigar or drink the same drink.

Hints:

  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 green house owner 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 house right in the centre drinks milk.
  9. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
  10. The man who smokes Blend lives next to the one who keeps cats.
  11. The man who keeps horses lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill.
  12. The owner 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 Blend has a neighbor who drinks water.

Problem: Specify who lives in each house, what animals they own, what they drink and what they smoke, and then, by this process, determine who has the fish.

Update: Follow this link only if you want the answer! Solution to The Einstein Quiz.

UPDATE 2: Warning! Answer is posted in the Comments section.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

We know, it is the German! It took us 20 minutes. :-b

-Elise,Chantal, Marie-France Challis

(FRANCE)

r32argent said...

20 minutes?! Einstein would be proud! :o)

Anonymous said...

I solved it! after about 15 to 20 minutes.

(Curacao, Netherlands Antilles)

r32argent said...

Why, oh why, is everyone quicker than me? :o) Great!

Anonymous said...

The German is not the correct answer. The word fish does not appear anywhere except the question. You are just assuming that the German has the fish but you have no basis in making the assumption.

r32argent said...

There is only one answer where all of the Facts and Hints are true.

The fact that the German has the fish is not an assumption. The answer can be deduced from the information provided in the quiz.

The reason why there is no direct mention of "fish", other than in the question itself, is to make the puzzle more difficult.

Hope this helps.

addicted to life said...

Hi ;)
I've found a solution last weekend by myself.
I have already posted this quiz to my blog and afterthat I started solving it!
I needed about 40 minutes, pen and paper of course!
It's not difficult, there are just 15 statements, they are mixed-up and when you find the right order - you find the right country!
;) yep!

r32argent said...

Ah. Regarding the comment on 14/5/09 07:51, now. It's true that if we don't make any assumptions then perhaps no one has the fish -- though it's just as likely that someone does.

If this was Einstein's answer, then I'd be less impressed with it. While I've read that it could be an example of lateral thinking, or a point regarding making erroneous assumptions, I'd categorize it as a trick question. It's like asking, "under which cup is the dime hidden?" when it's not actually a dime but a penny.

I wonder what Einstein's "correct" answer was.