http://www.truemirror.com/moredata.asp">To thine ownself be true (if you can afford it)

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), February 01, 2001

Answers

truemirror

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), February 01, 2001.

...and after one "has everything", what does one do for enjoyment? One solves puzzles! Here is a popular one found on the 'Net:
Below is a riddle (allegedly) written by Einstein from the early 20th century.
He claimed 98% of the people in the world cannot solve the quiz.
There are no tricks - the solution is based purely on deductive reasoning.
Are you among the other 2%?
Facts:
1. There are 5 houses in 5 different colors
2. In each house lives a person with a different nationality
3. These 5 owners each 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 cigar brand, or drink the same drink.
Hints:
1. The Brit lives in a red house.
2. The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
3. The Dane drinks tea.
4. The green house is on the left of the white house.
5. The green house owner drinks coffee.
6. The person who smokes Pall Mall's raises birds.
7. The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill.
8. The man living in the house right in the center drinks milk.
9. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
10. The man who smokes Blend lives next to the man who keeps cats.
11. The man who keeps horses lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill.
12. The man who smokes Blue Master drinks beer.
13. The German smokes Prince.
14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
15. The man who smokes Blend has a neighbor that drinks water.
Question:
Who owns the fish?

-- JCL jockey (WeThrive@nStress.com), February 01, 2001.

Can I post my answer now or is everyone still working on it?

-- Debra (Thisis@it.com), February 01, 2001.

I recall solving an alomst identical logic puzzle when I was in the 9th grade.

I have long since forgotten the details, but my hazy recollection is that the version I solved had maybe 20 clues, so someone appears to have been at work on it in the past few decades, paring away and refining it. At the time, I was the only one in my Geometry class who solved it correctly.

No mention of Einstein when I first encountered this... but it's a hell of fun puzzle. Thanks for posting it.

P.S. Debra, how long did it take you?

-- No Inclination to Say Who I Am (one_off@not_telling.com), February 01, 2001.

I can't figure this puzzle or maybe I'm too lazy to try. I do know that the answer is on the Net. Sorry, find the link yourself.

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), February 01, 2001.

http://home.fuse.net/k8dv/riddleans.html

Link

-- (an@nswer.here), February 01, 2001.

Got it. Roughly 80 minutes, stretched over lunch and one coffee break. Anyone who is willing to be systematic about it will solve it, no sweat.

Hint: Draw 5 boxes to represent the five houses, left to right. Inside each box, write what you are completely certain is TRUE of that house. Below each box, keep track of what you are absolutely certain is NOT TRUE about the house. Four NOT TRUE in one category for one house == one TRUE in that category for that house.

The first pass over the clues should give you 3 items known TRUE, given in hints 8, 9 and 14 - plus three or four NOT TRUE that can be firmly assigned to some one house or other.

The rest is simple accretion. Each subsequent pass over the clues adds one or more new pieces of known info, you just have to be sharp enough to see when the 20th pass over the same clue is the pass that adds new knowledge.

BTW, it's lucky for the birds that the cats don't live next door!

-- No Inclination to Say Who I Am (one_off@not_telling.com), February 01, 2001.

No Inclination,

It took me about 45 minutes to an hour this morn to solve it.

-- Debra (Thisis@it.com), February 01, 2001.