Alternative Einstein's riddle answer

First she/he says:
2. House 1 and 3 CANNOT have Birds or Dogs nor Pall Mall.
Then she/he says:
1. House 3 MUST have "Pall Mall - Birds".
Am I the only one who is confused about this???

Here are the solutions to the riddle using your rules:
-------------
col: | yellow | blue | red | green | white |
nat: | nor | dane | brit | german | swede |
bev: | water | tea | milk | coffee | beer |
pet: | cats | horses | birds | fish | dogs |
smo: | dunhill | blends | pall_mall | prince | blue_master |
-------------
col: | green | blue | red | yellow | white |
nat: | nor | german | brit | dane | swede |
bev: | coffee | water | milk | tea | beer |
pet: | birds | fish | horses | cats | dogs |
smo: | pall_mall | prince | blends | dunhill | blue_master |
-------------
col: | green | blue | red | yellow | white |
nat: | nor | german | brit | dane | swede |
bev: | coffee | water | milk | tea | beer |
pet: | birds | cats | horses | fish | dogs |
smo: | pall_mall | prince | blends | dunhill | blue_master |
-------------
col: | green | blue | white | red | yellow |
nat: | nor | german | swede | brit | dane |
bev: | coffee | water | milk | beer | tea |
pet: | birds | cats | dogs | horses | fish |
smo: | pall_mall | prince | blends | blue_master | dunhill |
-------------
col: | green | blue | yellow | red | white |
nat: | nor | german | swede | brit | dane |
bev: | coffee | water | milk | beer | tea |
pet: | fish | cats | dogs | horses | birds |
smo: | blends | prince | dunhill | blue_master | pall_mall |
-------------
col: | green | blue | white | yellow | red |
nat: | nor | german | swede | dane | brit |
bev: | coffee | water | milk | tea | beer |
pet: | birds | fish | dogs | cats | horses |
smo: | pall_mall | prince | blends | dunhill | blue_master |
-------------
col: | green | blue | white | yellow | red |
nat: | nor | german | swede | dane | brit |
bev: | coffee | water | milk | tea | beer |
pet: | birds | cats | dogs | fish | horses |
smo: | pall_mall | prince | blends | dunhill | blue_master |
-------------

With your clue change, that makes 7 possible housing ordering solutions.
It seems unlikely that there would be 3 equally likely answers.

Using the clue to mean directly adjacent, there is only one possible solution.
Seeing how it would be odd to write a riddle with multiple conflicting solutions,
your interpretation is unlikely to be valid.
(I wrote a program that takes all the housing permutations, and then makes filters from the clues to reduce the permutations down to a manageable number)

My conclusion: not an alternative answer.

Because there are 15 hints, which is 3 * 5, then based on the mean the fish must live in the fourth house. Since the fourth clue talks about a green house, it inevitably is green; which happens to drink coffee (based on the fifth clue). Then due to the overweighting of 5's (see coffee clue and the fact there are 5 categories with 5 values), we need some more 3's to balance things out. The third and ninth clues are useless since we already know it's the fourth house which drinks coffee. But, if we sum 4 and 9 we get 13, which tells us the it is a German who smokes Prince.

Then again, can anyone really own a fish? The other pets are "kept". What is so special about our aquatic neighbors that they are denied independance? And this can't be reduced to mamalian superiority since the Brit rears birds.

On a serious note; 5!^5 = 24.88B possible permutations which is reduced to a single correct solution with only 15 binary constraints. That pretty impressive.

I agree with you about "the green house to the left of the white" issue. Apparently the version that I went from missed the "immediately to the left of" wording. I too came up with the Dane having the fish however I see him in the blue 2nd house. I do not see errors in my arrangement. Assuming the riddle did NOT say "immediately", can someone check it plz?! (maybe Einstein was being tricky and KNEW there was more than one correct answer!)

1 Nor coffee green Pall bird
2 Dan tea blue Blend fish
3 Ger milk:-) white Prince cat
4 Brit beer red Bluema horse
5 Swede water yellow Dunhi dog

I'm still laughing that the German does not drink beer!

The green house is to the left of the white house. I don't see that....

I don't think his riddle is a math equation at all he uses the word keeps for the pets never own. I think the answer is no one. Because you cannot own a pet anymore than you can rightfully own a person. I think this riddle is a philosophical one not a mathematical one.

I do not think this is a mathematical riddle at all. He uses the word keeps with regard to the pets always. However the question asks who OWNS. the fish. I think that is the key and the answer is no one. Because no one can own an animal anymore than you can own a person.

I had this same thought. maybe THAT is the solution.

Actually, next to means just that, next to. That is, it can be on either side, left or right. After is the English word that is used to connote that something is following another item in a list. If we were to assume the houses started with the Norwegian on the far left, we could safely assume that after meant to the right. Next to, here, simply states that it is on any side, and not seperated by any other houses. Also, in the rules cedor provided, to the left could mean any house where the numerical house position is less than the numerical position of said white house.

I had never heard of this riddle and solved it following her rules. What I attained was this:

_______________________________________
| _1_ | _2_ | _3_ |_4_| _5_ |<----Numerical position |
| Yel | Blu | Red | Gre | Whi |<----House Colour |
| Nor | Dan | Bri | Ger | Swe |<----Nationality |
| Wat | Tea | Mil | Cof | Bee |<----Drink |
| Dun | Ble | Pau | Pri | Blu |<----Tobacco |
| Cat | Hor | Bir | ??? | Dog |<----Animal |
|______________________________________ |

From the rules, we can safely assume that the remaining pet is the fish. or rather, even if it is not a fish, finding which person's pet is unaccounted for seems like a fine solution to the puzzle.

There were many times in history where you could rightfully own a person. In-fact, there are still places where you can.

Why can I not own an animal? What does the word own mean to you? Personally, I consider the word own to mean that it is in my position and I have a certain degree of control over it. In that sense, I most certainly can own many varieties of animal, a fish amongst them.

As we become more and more statist in the west, maybe the day will come where you truly do not own anything, but rather the state owns all and lets us use things in certain ways deemed fit. For the time being though, yes, we can own animals.

Additionally, I am pretty Einstein was not a PETA fag.

I came up with the same answer -when I did it but with a different twist. Mine lived in a cul-de-sac It works and matches all the requirements (took 30min.) used sticky notes.
1st house Green-Norwegin PalMal Bird-Coffee
2nd White-German-Prince-Water-Cat
3rd- Red -Brit-Blend-Milk-Horse
4th- Yellow-Dane-Dunhill-Tea-fish
5th (next to #1 in circular cul-de-sac) Blue-Beer-Bluemaster-Swede-Dog

Good perspective, John. There is an assumption every one makes and accepts in this riddle. It is "only 2% of the population can solve this". Where is the supporting data to reach that conclusion? Any references on the research studying complexity of the problem versus the analytic capability of humans? Has the critical thinking power of the humans changed over time? BTW, I did it in Sudoku style with 5x5 grid and was successful in less than half an hour. I have placed German in the green house TO the left OF white house, not to the puzzle solvers left. So for me, green house is the 5th house in the row. I give credit to the riddle creator for the entertainment value, but am skeptic on his observation that only a small portion of human brains could solve this.

It also works in this order..that I used. GREEN,WHITE,RED,BLUE,YELLOW..and still comes out as GERMAN owning the FISH.

Good try! This does not work because the green house must be on the IMMEDIATE left if the white house. I cannot be two houses away.

My solution was derived from the following riddle wording which is why it might seem faulty. I wanted to check if I was right, and if not what the right solution would be.

http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=71949

My final answer was that the Dane owned the fish. The interpretation of Rule #4 as "on" meaning direct or general location of the green house to the white may wary. My solution was based off off general direction giving way to possible errors, so please check.


Norwegian German British Dane Swedish
green blue red yellow white
coffee water milk tea beer
birds cat horse FISH dog
Pall Mall Prince Blend Dunhill Bluemaster

And now please look at the last line of text in which only four animals are listed. Going in order down the column one discovers that the owner who smokes Dunhill is indeed living next to the one who keeps horses, seeing as the last animal name is left BLANK under the Dane column for the reader to assume that it is the FISH's place, and thereby proving the riddle inevitably correct.

HOLY **** I was looking all over the Internet for this answer..I was puzzled how people got the German if it doesn't fit in logic! I figured out that Dane has 2 pets which are horses and birds..they are still different pets than the rest..I can prove my answer. The tricky thing here is that according to a " neighbor", it doesn't have to live next to another, it can live close by.So my big question here is " why would Einstein choose neighbor rather than next to"? There's a BIG difference!

If the houses were in a circle then please explain the statement "The man living in the center house drinks milk"? Mathematics and geometry being precise, there is no "center" on the outside of a circle.

In interpreting the riddle with the notion that the Green house is to the left, BUT NOT the IMMEDIATE left, of the White house, you are then confronted with MULTIPLE alternative possible solutions. Here is one where the Norwegian has the fish:

GREEN BLUE YELLOW RED WHITE
Norwegian German Swede Brit Dane
Blends Prince Dunhill Bluemasters Pall Mall
Coffee Water Milk Beer Tea
FISH Cats Dogs Horse Birds

And even using your original template of the first house (Green/Norwegian/Pall Mall/Coffee/Birds), one can still arrive at an alternative solution where the German has the fish:


GREEN BLUE RED YELLOW WHITE
Norwegian German Brit Dane Swede
Pall Mall Prince Blends Dunhill Bluemasters
Coffee Water Milk Tea Beer
Birds FISH Horse Cats Dogs

Thus, it is only rational to assume that the rule about the Green house refers to it as the IMMEDIATE left of the White house, which yields only one possible solution, the correct answer, while any other interpretation would yield multiple solutions.

p.s. As far as 98% of the world not "being able" to solve it, I believe Einstein was being somewhat facetious in this regard, as it is not a very difficult riddle to solve, however it does require the investment of significant effort and concentration. Perhaps Einstein's comment was in fact a social commentary of the percentage of people who would stick with it to the end, as opposed to those who would simply give up.