Albert Einstein's brain Teaser

Grand Illusions ^

[Consort]

1: The Briton lives in a red house.

But who owns the red house?

[BlueNgold]

8 mins 37 secs - pad and paper

Now where's my application for MENSA?

[AntiGuv]

That was my arrangement as well. I think we done good! ;^)

[x1stcav]

I'll grant you the Norwegian, but how is the Brit a given?

[Phsstpok]

If you ever DO go on a Snipe Hunt, carry a big stick and wail the hell out of.....

My dad had been scout master when my brother, who is 8 years older than I am, was in scouts, so they warned me about snipe hunts prior to my first camping trip. I came prepared. I brought a wind up bird and waited for about 15 minutes, until the older kids (read 13 or 14) had figured I was well and truly lost. I then wandered back into the campfire with the paperbag I had been given kicking and bucking like mad. I don't know what they think I had, but it scared them to death. That group of kids never tried anything like that on me again.

[EGPWS]

Ah, What was the question?

[fnord]

3a = 4b

a = man's age
b = woman's age
algebra
solve for a + b = 98

[AntiGuv]

Once you have the houses in correct color order, the Brit is a given because of statement #1: The Briton lives in a red house.

You know the Norwegian lives in the first house (#9) and that the house next to the Norwegian is blue (#14). So, the second house is the blue one. The green & white house are next to one another (#4). Since the guy in the middle drinks milk (#8), that can't be the green house owner who drinks coffee (#5). The green house then has to be fourth in order to be on the left of the white house, which is fifth.

That leaves red or yellow for the first and middle houses, so the middle must be the Briton's red house (#1), since the Norwegian is in the first house (#9), which therefore must be the yellow house.

Since the owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill (#7), you know the man who keeps horses lives in the second house (#11). This means the Swede lives in either the fourth or fifth house, since he keeps dogs (#2). At this point, you already know the Dane lives in either the second or fifth house, since he drinks tea (#3). So, you just put the Dane in the fifth house, which forces the Swede into the fourth house. When you see that the statements don't work out, you know the Dane must be in the second house.

Everything then falls into place.

[supercat]

Everything then falls into place.

I've done these puzzles before, and don't generally care for them. In some of the IMHO more interesting ones, though, not everything is solvable but the particular question asked, is. On the other hand, there's a fine line between puzzles that require insight and those that require frustrating amounts of trial and error.

[fnord]

9: The Norwegian lives in the first house

not to be Clintonian but ... first on the left or first on the right ?

doesn't affect the answer to the question, but the overall total grid can be different.

[gitmo]

I jotted down some assumptions as I started the riddle. One was that 'first' was on the left. Another was that the owner of a house lived in the house.

[gitmo]

That's what I got as well

[supercat]

I jotted down some assumptions as I started the riddle. One was that 'first' was on the left. Another was that the owner of a house lived in the house.

How about the fact that someone kept fish as a pet rather than as catfood?

[x1stcav]

Thanks.

I'll lokk at it later. I thoink this is the avenue I was traveling and then changed. It seems to me I had the colors reversed.

[PeaceBeWithYou]

... but how is the Brit a given?

It's not quite a given, but it's close.

We know there are five houses in total. Yellow, Blue, Red, [Green, and White].

The first house in not the Brits (clue 9) therefore it is not red. the second house is blue (clue 14), the green and white house are adjacent,(clue 4) but the green house drinks coffee so the third house cannot be green(clue 8). This means the first house is yellow and the third is red, and the fourth and fifth houses are green and white respectively.

[AntiGuv]

Well, the "real" logical answer is that the answer is unknown, since you're never given a premise that anyone owns fish. I was just curious to see if the statements could actually be fit into an arrangement with an unknown pet, in which case that would be the fish owner, assuming his pets are fish. LOL!

[July 4th]

These same kinds of questions appear on the LSAT in the form of logic games. You get a half-hour to do 4 of them. It sucks.

[Gabz]

Simple logic puzzle - 7 minutes.

[fiftymegaton]

Took me about 22min with pen and paper.

[facedown]