Einstein's Riddle: Who Has the Fish?

[rachmaninoff]

the funniest thing in all these posts is that everybody is busy telling homework long it took them to solve it, or how is it possible that only 2% people are able to solve it.
but we don't even have a single post which gives the answer(atleast for those, who were not able to solvew it. Remember, 98% have not been able to solve it).

The 2% offer their apologies to the 98% for being inconsiderate stuck-up pricks.


1 Norwegian Yellow Cat Water Dunhill
2 Danish Blue Horse Tea Blend
3 British Red Bird Milk Pall Mall
4 German Green Fish Coffee Prince
5 Swedish White Dog Beer Bluemaster
The German has fish.

 

[The Bob]

The 2% offer their apologies to the 98% for being inconsiderate stuck-up pricks.

Agreed. Why solve it if we can all do it?

The Bob (2004 ©)

 

[cdhotfire]

I just felt left out, and said that i solved it . Nah I am kidding i did it, only hard part was setting it up, that's bout it.

 

[Cosmo16]

I think the X factor that we are leaving out in the fact that we can all solve it is the fact that we are willing to spend the 20-30 mins to solve it. I think it isn't the ability of people who can't solve it, just the will.

 

[cdhotfire]

thats probably right, because i didnt think it was all that hard, i bet anyone can do it, if they actually spend time on it. Nicely put!

 

[check]

I did it after I read it today. Took me about 10-15 min.
It's pretty easy, but you just need a logical way to set it up, unless you're good at keeping things straight in your head.

 

[quantumgenius]

took me about 20 min. most the time I put something in the wrong houses.

 

[GCT]

There is no time alloted for this problem, anyone who has a college degree or sufficient motivation should be able to solve it within an hour, of course with some exceptions (low attention span etc...). However, note that there are many people who have absolutely no clue on even how to start; such as those who have discontinued their education early on. Perhaps that's the real point of this problem, it takes a significant degree of work and investment of one's time, the pursuit of intelligence. One can certainly say that in this sense, a large proportion of the world's population simply would not care to even begin solving this problem much less work out the whole thing.

 

[Icebreaker]

Sure's a hell lot easier than Boolos' puzzle.

 

[scholar]

Took me about 5-10 minutes. :)

 

[lektor]

Took me about 3x 10 minute efforts, kept messing it up >_<

As for technique I would bother posting the excell document i used to setup an elimination grid, i have [sarcasim]toooo much ftp space[/sarcasim]

 

[Gza]

dude, why don't we just have at it; drop our pants and break out the rulers? ::gives brownie to vikas::

 

[ToxicBug]

I've solved that riddle when our English teacher gave it to us in 9th grade. Those who solved the riddle didn't have to do homework for the rest of the term.

 

[vikasj007]

can i borrow that teacher for the rest of my educational life?

i'll solve one each term and then have loads of fun

 

[RespectKim]

I'm in the 2% who sloved Einstein's Riddle. I did it in about 1 hour. Going off the IQ test I have taken my IQ is bitween 113-119. But if you can solve this riddle what is my IQ now then?

 

[Hellstorm]

I liked this riddle, mostly because it was something I could solve that my dad can't. It took me about 40 mins to do, seeing how I messed up a number of times.

 

[MohammadK]

Who has the fish? what color house please tell me

 

[waht]

re

since we know what county einstein came from, we should come up with the answer in an instant without solving the problem. And that is the point of the problem, not actually solving it but looking at the bigger picture.

 

[mattmns]

since we know what county einstein came from, we should come up with the answer in an instant without solving the problem. And that is the point of the problem, not actually solving it but looking at the bigger picture.

That was the first thing I thought, and it turned out to be true.

 

[kleinwolf]

Have you ever tried to put the houses in circle ?

 

[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.