Einstein's Riddle: Who Has the Fish?

[Icebreaker]

Putting them in a circle would make the directions "left, right" ambiguous.

 

[kleinwolf]

Why...not more ambiguous than on a line...

 

[MohammadK]

Belieave it or not it took me several minutes.How I did it was I pictured 15 separate charts(and wrote down)then pluged them in so that all the clues would be true.Maybe someone else had used this method but maybe not as fast. Evantually I got the answer.

 

[bayan]

I did this in my head and took me about 5 or so minutes. although I am not sure if the answer is right! can some one reply the answer to me? (as a personal message or something)

Thanx

 

[whozum]

The answers been posted about five times.

 

[Type 7]

Where does one go about taking a true IQ test?

To get an accurate assessment of your cognitive abilities, you would need to consult a professional. There are psychologists whose practice centers on doing assessments, as opposed to psychotherapy, and they would be your best bet. The American Psychological Association could probably provide you with some referrals.

Psychologists no longer rely on a single number or 'IQ' to rate a person's ability. There are many aspects of intelligence and each is tested and rated as a percentile of the person's peer group, which itself includes factors such as age, level of education, etc. The variables are many and the analysis complex and subject to the interpretation of the assessor, so no online or Mensa quiz can give you a true picture of your intelligence.

With all this data, a professional can also forecast the likelihood of your success and happiness in a given career field.

With a true assessment of your strengths and weaknesses, you will have an invaluable guide to choosing not only a career, but even hobbies and extracurricular activities that will enhance your self expression, your satisfaction level, etc. In other words, once you "know thyself" and then "to thine own self be true," you will have a greater quality of life throughout your lifetime.

Try to find a psychologist that has at least ten years experience. The cost of an assessment varies, but is around $500. It is worth it. Even Ben Franklin, famous for his frugality, said, "If a man emptys his purse into his head, no one can take it away from him."

 

[asti]

It is NOT the German. But 98% of us think it is :-)

In fact, almost all of the websites you come across will proudly display their finished chart and conclude the German is the right answer.

Einstein was pretty crafty when he created this riddle. 98% of the people that come across this problem go about the same way of resolving it. They chart out the problem and work out which person has which pet, drink and smoke, and step by step they work out finally that it must be the German who has fish.

But that is not the right way to go about solving the riddle.

Einstein words this riddle very carefully, and nowhere does it say that one of the nationalities actually has fish at home. He simply asks "who has fish at home?"

The fact is, for all we know, the German could be keeping an elephant! Because we don't know what kind of pet the German has, we just assume that the pet is fish. But that assumption is not based on any given fact.

So the answer is: we have no idea if anyone has fish. Einstein stressed examining assumptions, and is famously quoted as saying: "The important thing is to not stop questioning."

But like everyone else, I did the chart thing :-) I found the correct answer here:

http://www.amazeingart.com/fun/einstein-quiz.html

 

[Alkatran]

It is NOT the German. But 98% of us think it is :-)

In fact, almost all of the websites you come across will proudly display their finished chart and conclude the German is the right answer.

Einstein was pretty crafty when he created this riddle. 98% of the people that come across this problem go about the same way of resolving it. They chart out the problem and work out which person has which pet, drink and smoke, and step by step they work out finally that it must be the German who has fish.

But that is not the right way to go about solving the riddle.

Einstein words this riddle very carefully, and nowhere does it say that one of the nationalities actually has fish at home. He simply asks "who has fish at home?"

The fact is, for all we know, the German could be keeping an elephant! Because we don't know what kind of pet the German has, we just assume that the pet is fish. But that assumption is not based on any given fact.

So the answer is: we have no idea if anyone has fish. Einstein stressed examining assumptions, and is famously quoted as saying: "The important thing is to not stop questioning."

But like everyone else, I did the chart thing :-) I found the correct answer here:

http://www.amazeingart.com/fun/einstein-quiz.html

It's implied by "Who has fish at home?" that a fish exists. So you either have to say "the German" or "Someone not mentioned in the problem."

 

[asti]

Implied is probably a good word. We all ASSUME because we are asked "who has fish", that the "missing fifth pet" must be a fish. But never in the riddle is it declared that the missing pet is a fish; that conclusion is made by an automatic assumption on our part.

If Einstein had intended the answer to be the German, he would have stated clearly "one person has fish at home - can you figure out who it is?"

And if you think about it: Einstein claimed that 98% would get this wrong - now anyone with half a brain can sit down and figure out logically that the we don't know what kind of pet the German has. However, 98% of us will automatically assume that missing fifth pet has to be "fish".

2% of people will reply, "well, not necessarily. Looking at all the facts given, we can guess that the missing pet "might" be a fish, but we cannot conclude that any certainty."

Think about it: if your life depended on the answer, would you reply: "yes, without question, the German has fish for a pet"? Would you stake your life on that conclusion? Of course you wouldn't! Because there is a chance you could be wrong - therefore an assumption has been made without any fact attached to it.

Think about it this way: let's look at the riddle without the various clues attached:

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.

Question: Can you determine who keeps fish?

Answer: of course not.

If the question included:

5. One of the owners has pet fish.

Then that would be different.

But the riddle is worded very carefully, and the only way anyone can claim that the German actually keeps fish is by making the assumption that the missing pet is fish.

This is a logic riddle, and logic tells us not to make assumptions.

 

[Spastik_Relativity]

But the riddle is worded very carefully, and the only way anyone can claim that the German actually keeps fish is by making the assumption that the missing pet is fish.

This is a logic riddle, and logic tells us not to make assumptions.

"I believe that I have really found the relationship between gravitation and electricity, assuming that the Miller experiments are based on a fundamental error. Otherwise, the whole relativity theory collapses like a house of cards."
— Albert Einstein, in a letter to Robert Millikan, June 1921 (in Clark 1971, p.328)

Even the great man himself made assumptions.

 

[asti]

At least he acknowledges and confronts his assumptions. I suppose then you could say something along the lines of, "we can determine logically that we don't know what kind of pet the German has, and based on the assumption that the missing fifth pet is a fish, we can determine that the German has fish".

The thing is, very few people recognize the assumption being made. I think it's a really important thing to note, because everyday we draw conclusions about situations, events and other people based on the information we are provided with. And everyday we make assumptions based on that information at hand. Many of us might then swear that something is absolute, without realizing that at some point along the line, an assumption was made which wasn't attached to any given fact, and as such, our conclusions about the situation, event or person could well be wrong!

That's what I've taken away from the riddle anyway, because I thought it was the German as well; it never occurred to me that the fifth pet might in fact NOT be a fish!

Anyway, we're all assuming Einstein did indeed write the riddle - I haven't found any concrete evidence to prove that he did so, but admittedly I haven't looked very hard for it - does anyone else know where and when it appeared?

The general acceptance is that he wrote it in the early part of the 20th century, but I cannot find out how and where it appeared. I'd be really interested to see what the original script is - which I "assume" will be in German? :-)

 

[vikasj007]

But like everyone else, I did the chart thing :-) I found the correct answer here:

http://www.amazeingart.com/fun/einstein-quiz.html

well this is nothing but a spoof. you get loads of such things on the net, such people are out there only with the aim to belittle any and everything.

the assumption to be made is more than obvious. i mean, einstein was a genius, and he won't go around asking stupid questions.

 

[infidel]

Took me about 15 min. I did use a drawing and wrote the clues down, etc.

If the nonsense about not knowing pet 5 is a fish, that's just silly. These kind of logic problems are well known and by every example I've ever seen the 'assumption' the 5th pet is a fish is obvious and trivial. The 'trick' is stupid, if it's supposedly the 'real' answer.

Though I do doubt Einstein actually wrote this. But who knows. Maybe he liked logic puzzles.

 

[hypatia]

note... the word, keeping, was the popular way of saying "owning" when Einstine was in his heyday.
My Grandfather always said that he kept dogs, never that he owned dogs.

 

[whozum]

Einstein wrote this riddle last century and said that 98% of the world’s population would not be able to solve it.

Are you a part of that 98%?

* There are 5 houses that are each a different colour.

* There is a person of a different nationality in each house.

* The 5 owners drink a certain drink. They each smoke a certain brand of cigarettes and also have a certain pet. No owner has the same pet, smokes the same brand of cigarettes nor drinks the same drink.

The question is. “Who has the fish?”

* The 5 owners drink a certain drink. They each smoke a certain brand of cigarettes and also have a certain pet. No owner has the same pet, smokes the same brand of cigarettes nor drinks the same drink.

The question is. “Who has the fish?”

I think that's pretty obvious to draw out that each one has a pet .