Neighbors

[Guest]

I don't think only 2% can solve this. It doesn't even require trail and error, can be solved purely from whats written. (with the help of a 5X6 graph)

But then, I heard somewhere that the brains of humans are getting smaller generation after generation. Does IQ change accordingly?

[Guest]

I'm positive I'm not near as smart as most of you folks. But I take a lot of pride in figuring this out. Unfortunatly, it took me about 4 hours (on and off) but woohoo!!! I got it right. Sure beats sitting in front of the idiot box. Can't wait to try some more. As far the the debate on the assumptions.... Man, I must have been too stupid to even realize there were options. I just solved what my mind's eye seen.

[Guest]

I've seen and solved many puzzles like this, and I've also come across puzzle of this type that I seemed unable to solve. But if I get a question about who has fish for pets, whereas there is no mention of fish for pets in any of the statements, I assume that the question IMPLIES that one of them owns fish for pets, and it's your task to find out who it is.

Therefor if one person remains whose pet is unknown, that's the person who has fish for pets.

I believe there is no rule saying that this isn't allowed, and in fact, many of these puzzles ARE impossible to solve without such implied information. It's PART of the puzzle, to see if you're using your brain! If you can't solve it, you didn't squeeze all the available information out of every word of the puzzle.

That may also have been what Einstein meant to say when he said that maybe 2% might be able to solve it. Those two percent at least dare to see the implied information. The rest just assumes this information is non-existent.

At least, that's what I make of it.

BoilingOil

[Guest]

4. The Green house is on the left of the White house.

i have to agree with JQST in that the wording on this hint is just too ambiguous to claim only one logical meaning. it seems that the answer hinges on these houses being directly next to each other, and yet there is no good reason to assume that they must be based on the given wording... leading to unnecessary confusion.

this led me to work the problem through once under the aforementioned assumption, and then attempt to do so a superfluous and uneventful second time to be certain that the assumption was requisite for a solution (which it appears to be).

how bout...

4. The Green house is directly on the left of the White house.

i was originally puzzled by this as well, and so, early on in my solving i had a "?" as to the location of the two buildings. However, if you work through the problem, you find out that "The man living in the centre house drinks milk." After doing deductive reasoning, you end up finding out that the order given as a solution on here, is in fact the only correct answer. I believe that the author (einstein, or not) intentionally left that questionable wording in there to get people to think harder, knowing that it was 100% solvable if you kept at it.

[Guest]

i was originally puzzled by this as well, and so, early on in my solving i had a "?" as to the location of the two buildings. However, if you work through the problem, you find out that "The man living in the centre house drinks milk." After doing deductive reasoning, you end up finding out that the order given as a solution on here, is in fact the only correct answer. I believe that the author (einstein, or not) intentionally left that questionable wording in there to get people to think harder, knowing that it was 100% solvable if you kept at it.

This is exactly how these puzzles work, Slyk. Some things are easy to assume or interpret, others need to be verified to make sure you have made the right assumption. I saw the same thing in the wording "this ship lies to the left (or right) of that ship" in the ships puzzle. In the end it actually appeared to mean "this ship lies DIRECTLY to the left (or right)of that ship" in ALL occuring cases. This need not to be always true, though.

This happens often and I think it may be intentional, as part of the puzzle. OTher wordings might make it too easy to solve, maybe.

BoilingOil

[Guest]

I noticed that fish was unmentioned but I just assumed it was the 5th pet.

I did make a chart like that and got the same answer, but I spent half an hour and now its 1:30 am. -dies-

[Guest]

house 1 house 2 house 3 house 4 house 5

Norwegian German brit dane swede

bird fish horse cat dog

coffee water milk tea beer

pall mall prince blends dunhill blue masters

green blue red yellow white

i don't understand what the previous posts mean about it cant be solved with the given information?

don't know when the next time ill be on this site will be but if someone could shed some light on why its not solvable or if i did it wrong i would appreciate it.

My results were different. D:

house 1 house 2 house 3 house 4 house 5

Norweigian Dane Brit German Swede

Cat Horse Bird Fish Dog

Water Tea Milk Coffee Beer

Dunhill Blends Pallmall Prince Blue master

But fish and German landed on the same row.

[Guest]

iimpeachyz wrote:

My results were different. D:

house 1 house 2 house 3 house 4 house 5

Norweigian Dane Brit German Swede

Cat Horse Bird Fish Dog

Water Tea Milk Coffee Beer

Dunhill Blends Pallmall Prince Blue master

But fish and German landed on the same row.

You did not include the colors. I think if you work through it again and assign colors as well, then you will find that your solution is incorrect. If you get it to work your way after you have included the colors, please repost your solution and let us know. Keep trying. Good luck!

[Guest]

I didn't make a chart, but I got it in about fifteen - twenty minutes (ish), I knew it was the German who didn't have a pet, but also that the pet didn't have to be fish.

Maybe I'm in the top five percent?

[Guest]

ha! this puzzle is SOLVABLE. sit down, make a little spreadsheet and work it out. if you get stuck, just start over and do it again. the 3rd time i tried it, i figured each clue out and it easily lead to the answer. you are all looking too far into the question. you are right, it doesn't specify that they only drink one drink...blah blah. You twist the wording around so it appears to not make sense. Then say, "there's not enough info to reach a conclusion!" and hope thats what Einstein wants you to say. Trust me, they only have one pet each, one cigar brand each, etc. there is no secret in the wording. just do the darn puzzle and accept that you arent in the 2%.

[Guest]

Answered it in 25 min, definitely reminded me of a sudoku. I found this site today and think i've been on for hours, I look forward to seeing what other chalenges are available.

[Guest]

This quiz was probably made up by Albert Einstein and according to him 98% will not solve it.

There is a row of five houses, each having a different color. In these houses live five people of various nationalities. Each of them nurtures a different beast, likes different drinks and smokes different brand of cigars.

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 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 center 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 neighbor who drinks water.

Which of the five house owners keeps fish as a pet? (are you one of the 2%).

hmm..this is kind of tough..but i have my own answer for this..^^P

position of the house:>>5>>4 >>3>>2>>1

color:>>white h.>>green h.>>red h.>>blue h.>>yellow h.

nationality:>>swede>>german>> brit>>dane>>Norwegian

drink:>>beer >>coffee>>milk>>tea >> water

cigar name:>>blue master >>prince , pall mall >> blends >>dunhill

beast/pet:>>dogs>>fish>>birds>> horse>>cats

...whew...in short the german has the fish...and...i hope you undestend my answer... heeheehee..^^P

[Guest]

I interpreted the phrase "The Green House is to the left of the White House" to mean that the Green house and the White house are next to each other. Left & Right are completely arbitrary when the frame of reference has not been established. And if you don't assume that the houses are next to each other, then this is a useless clue.

I found two solutions, they are the same as the posted solution except that houses #4 (German) and #5 (Swede) can be swapped and the solution is still valid.

I created a color-coded spreadsheet and used trial & error.

[Guest]

iimpeachyz wrote:

My results were different. D:

house 1 house 2 house 3 house 4 house 5

Norweigian Dane Brit German Swede

Cat Horse Bird Fish Dog

Water Tea Milk Coffee Beer

Dunhill Blends Pallmall Prince Blue master

But fish and German landed on the same row.

You did not include the colors. I think if you work through it again and assign colors as well, then you will find that your solution is incorrect. If you get it to work your way after you have included the colors, please repost your solution and let us know. Keep trying. Good luck!

Ohh I forgot about the colors!

yellow blue red green white

Norweigian Dane Brit German Swede

Cat Horse Bird Fish Dog

Water Tea Milk Coffee Beer

Dunhill Blends Pallmall Prince Blue master

I still got the same solution.. x_x

(Assuming that the fish is the fifth pet of course)

[Guest]

iimpeachyz wrote:

Ohh I forgot about the colors!

yellow blue red green white

Norweigian Dane Brit German Swede

Cat Horse Bird Fish Dog

Water Tea Milk Coffee Beer

Dunhill Blends Pallmall Prince Blue master

I still got the same solution.. x_x

(Assuming that the fish is the fifth pet of course)

Good job. It looks like you got it. I am not sure why you say your answer is different though - it looks identical to the solution posted. Good work

[Guest]

Easy. Got it in about 20 minutes, & yes- it did remind me of sudoku

[Guest]

I was sent this riddle by email that may have been a little clearer than the one some of you had. Mine clearly stated:

There are no tricks, just pure logic.....

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: WHO OWNS THE FISH?

The 4th question in the riddle read as:

#4 The Green house is next to, and on the left of the White house

With that being said, I spent several hours on this and was thoroughly entertained, sometimes frustrated. My husband, staring at the TV watching some reality show, asked me why I waste my time on something like this? Wasnt even worth an answer. I worked my way down the questions until I had a positive answer such as "The man living in the center house drinks milk"; then went to "The Norwegian lives in the first house". That kind of had me stumped as I drew five houses in a row across the paper and wondered, which is the first house. Is it the one on the far left or on the far right? Sometimes I am too anal. Then I managed to piece in the next clue "The Norwegian lives next to the blue house". I was sort of stumped on the next question (I felt would be best answered next) "The Green house is next to, and on the left of the White house" as I felt that could go in several places. So I changed my graph of houses to 3 rows of 5 houses trying each scenerio out and after about 4 hours I got it. I am very proud of myself. My brain has be rejuvinated and I feel smarter than a 5th grader. hahahaha

[Guest]

this might sound pretty stupid... but how bout the brit??? .... staple dish -FISH and chips

[Guest]

i think this is it:

House 1: Norweigan, Yellow, cats, water, dunhill

2: Dane, blue, horses, tea, blends

3: Brit, red, birds, milk, pall mall

4: German, green, fish, coffee, prince

5: swede, white, dog, beer, blue master

Edited January 31, 2008 by antimony

[Guest]

i could guess it similar...ref the attached.

[Guest]

I sorta had this little voice in me that said it never said anything about the fish in the whole list of rules or whatever you call it. But if it has to be that way it is sorta pointless because i figure that most ppl not just 2% of the world's pop would probably thought of that. Anyway i would like to know what einstein meant by the 'real answer' cause according to me there are like at least three correct and totally revilant answers. although ill like to know is this the case for all logic riddles and teasers?? o_O

o yeah and working it out by those 15 statements was quite easy. Guessed most of them. hehe.

[Guest]

This puzzle CAN be solved with the information given. (Assuming, of course, that the last animal is indeed a fish.)

Having spent 20 minutes on this, I came up with exactly the same answer as the solution.

I feel quite proud of myself (haha).. although I am a member of Mensa.

I've never done one of these before.. kept me entertained, thank you!

For those who gave up saying "The last animal does not have to be a fish" or "The statements did not say each man had one pet" etc. Assume these things and then try to work through the puzzle.

[Guest]

If in fact this "puzzle" was presented to a group EXACTLY as it appears in the original posting, there is only one way to answer.

If you have fish at home, you can answer: "I do."

EDIT:

The "original posting" I'm referring to is the one posted on the actual site - NOT in the forums. The one on the site reads like this:

Neighbours

This quiz was made up by Albert Einstein and according to him 98% will not solve it.

There is a row of five houses, each having a different colour. In these houses live five people of various nationalities. Each of them nurtures a different beast, likes different drinks and smokes different brand of cigars.

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 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.

Who has fish at home? (are you one of the 2%).

Edited April 11, 2008 by DrZeus77

[Guest]

You ever hear that saying that if you gave a million monkeys typewriters and let them randomly hit keys eventually one will reproduce a shakspearean play.... (I know that is slightly modified)

The internet, with the help of these forums, has proven that that is a false assumption.....

This logic puzzle is extremely old. There is no "trick" to it as people believe.

At the time of creation, it is true that only 2% of the population of the world would have been able to answer.

The reason it was considered so difficult back then was that it was 6 deep, where most people had trouble with 3 deep.

We have come a long way since then.

The Answers go like this, numbering the house 1 through 5 going left to right

House 1

Norwegian, Yellow, Dunhill, Water, Cats

House 2

Dane, Blue, Tea, Blends, Horses

House 3

Brit, Red, Milk, Pall Mall, Birds

House 4

German, Green, Coffee, Prince, Fish

House 5

Swede, White, Beer, Blue Master, Dogs

Until such time as we can communicate with Telepathy, EVERY puzzle will have an alternate answer along the lines of "missing information" or "you did not specify"

That is because spoken and written language is not a perfect form of communication.

Instead of trying to tear apart the problem, try applying your brain power to solve it.

Attacking is easy, solving is not.... Just look at politics

[Guest]

What if I viewed this problem and after careful consideration and placing one thing after another, I got the same answer??

Yet, it is true that the animals, cigarettes, colors, ect. mentioned in the next view lines could have nothing to do with the five houses. It could be that they are of other nationalities and the fact that these were mentioned make it seem that they are inter-related. It never says that: "Below is a list to help you decipher who lives where. Never does it spell out that the below statements have anything to do with the houses in question.

But very interesting question, and it did rack my brain. ^^

I wish you didn't put up the answer right away to give us more time to guess... that would have been fun.