Are you in the 2% that can you solve Einsteins riddle?

[BigRedChief]

The following riddle is claimed to have been written by Einstein as a boy. It's also sometimes attributed to Lewis Carrol, although there's no evidence that either of them actually wrote it. Either way, it's fiendishly clever and is popularly called "Einstein's riddle". It's rumored that only 2% of the world can solve it.

See if you can figure it out:

There are five houses in five different colors in a row. In each house lives a person with a different nationality. The five 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?


There are no tricks, all it requires is simple logic.



Those that haven’t the patience to work it out can watch PoETheeds' video, which takes you through the process of solving it step by step.

Spoiler!

[aturnis]

My first mistake was paper and pen. Switched to pencil and had it shortly thereafter.

I'm thinking the 2% reflects the number of people properly equipped with a chalkboard.

[patteeu]

Originally Posted by thurman merman

It took me a while, but I finally figured it out. I was on the verge of giving up and looking up the solution on the video, but my wife slapped me on the chest and told me not to cheat.

I really don't buy in to this 2% stuff, though. I've already talked to 2 other guys who figured it out in 30 minutes or less. I sincerely doubt that all of us are amongst the 2% of smartest people on Earth.

There's a lot of people in the world who can't read English and I bet they'd have a hard time coming up with the right answer.

[patteeu]

Originally Posted by Kaepernick

Seeing as most of earth's population can't read English, I would say 2% might be a good number.

[scho63]

I used to do these type of logic puzzles all the time online, there are websites you can find that have all types of these.

You use a grid pattern for the number of choices x the number of options. In this case there are 5 choices for each and 6 variables; therefore a 5 x 6 grid that you begin to fill in based on absolute info and then also info that is a known negative. A logic process of elimination.

Variables:
1. Color of House
2. Location of House
3. Type of Pet
4. Drink of Choice
5. Ethnic Origin
6. Cigarette of Choice

I've solved this before in a challenge.

[Dartgod]

Nobody solved this in 20 seconds. Give me a break.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by Dartgod

Nobody solved this in 20 seconds. Give me a break.

Not without cheating. It is pure logic. But, it does take a little while to work through the logic.

[scho63]

Here are two sites that have a variety of logic puzzles if this has piqued your interest or stimulated your brain.

http://www.puzzlersparadise.com/page1034.html

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

[GayFrogs]

I got stuck where I had the blue and white house as either tea or beer. So just marked them both as tea/beer. If you get past that hurdle it all falls into place. (the answer is the green house)