Einstein's riddle with 6 unknowns. Einstein's problem. Terms of Einstein's Riddle

However, there is no evidence that Einstein or Carroll came up with the problem. Moreover, the problem statement below mentions brands of cigarettes, such as Kools, that did not exist during Carroll's lifetime or during Einstein's childhood.

Some attribute to Einstein a reasoning in which he claims that only two percent of the world's population is able to mentally operate with patterns associated with five signs at once. As a particular consequence of this, the above puzzle can be solved without the use of paper only by those who belong to these two percent. However, there is no documentary evidence that Einstein ever made such a claim.

In its most difficult version, the problem involves solving it in your head, without the use of any notes or means of storing information. Without these restrictions, the puzzle noticeably loses in complexity, since it can be solved by simply drawing up a table with the elimination of obviously contradictory options, and, therefore, says little about the abilities of the subject.

Original problem text

Here is the first known published version of the puzzle, which appeared in the English magazine in the December 17, 1962 issue. The issue of March 25, 1963 contained the answer below and a list of several hundred names of readers who correctly solved the problem.

1. There are five houses on the street.
2. The Spaniard has a dog.
3. They drink coffee in the green house.
4. A Ukrainian drinks tea.
5. The green house is located immediately to the right of the white house.
6. Anyone who smokes Old Gold breeds snails.
7. They smoke Kools in the yellow house.
8. In the central house they drink milk.
9. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
10. The neighbor of the one who smokes Chesterfield keeps a fox.
11. In the house next door to the one where the horse is kept, they smoke Kools.
12. Anyone who smokes Lucky Strike drinks orange juice.
13. The Japanese smokes Parliament.

Who drinks water? Who's holding the zebra?

For the sake of clarity, it should be added that each of the five houses is painted a different color, and their residents are of different nationalities, own different animals, drink different drinks and smoke different brands of American cigarettes. One more note: in statement 6, on right means to the right relative to You.

Original text(English)

1. There are five houses.
2. The Englishman lives in the red house.
3. The Spaniard owns the dog.
4. Coffee is drunk in the green house.
5. The Ukrainian drinks tea.
6. The green house is immediately to the right of the ivory house.
7. The Old Gold smoker owns snails.
8. Kools are smoked in the yellow house.
9. Milk is drunk in the middle house.
10. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
11. The man who smokes Chesterfields lives in the house next to the man with the fox.
12. Kools are smoked in the house next to the house where the horse is kept.
13. The Lucky Strike smoker drinks orange juice.
14. The Japanese smokes Parliaments.
15. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.

Now, who drinks water? Who owns the zebra?

In the interest of clarity, it must be added that each of the five houses is painted a different color, and their inhabitants are of different national extractions, own different pets, drink different beverages and smoke different brands of American cigarettes. One other thing: in statement 6, right means your right.

The original condition omits some essential details, in particular that the houses are located in a row.

Since the condition does not say that anyone drinks water or holds a zebra, these statements are assumed to be implicit premises, as is customary in such logical problems. Otherwise, the response will be “Insufficient data.”

Premise 12 in the original is not formulated entirely correctly. It should read "Kools are smoked in a house next to the house where the horse is kept", not " the house", since in this case "the" implies that next to the house in which the horse is kept there is only one house, from which, in turn, it follows that the house with the horse is either the far left or the far right. And this ultimately leads to a contradiction.

Solution

Here are deductive steps that can be followed to arrive at a solution. The essence of the method is to try to enter known relationships into the table, consistently eliminating impossible options. Key conclusions are in italics.

Step 1

According to the condition, the Norwegian lives in the first house (10). It does not matter where - left or right - the numbering is carried out. We are only interested in the order of the houses, not the direction in which they are numbered.

From (10) and (15) it follows that the second house is blue. What color is the first house? Not green and not white, because they must stand next to each other (this follows from the 6th premise and the fact that the 2nd house is blue). Not red, because an Englishman lives there.

What color is the first house? It cannot be either green or white, because houses of these two colors must be located next to each other (3). It cannot be red either, because an Englishman lives in a red house (2). That's why first house yellow.

It follows that in the first house they smoke Kools (8), and in the second house they keep a horse (12).

What does the Norwegian who lives in the first, yellow house and smokes Kools drink? This is not tea, because tea is drunk by Ukrainians (5). And not coffee, because they drink coffee in a green house (4). And not the milk that is drunk in the third house (9). And not orange juice, because the person who drinks the juice is smoking Lucky Strike (13). Therefore, the Norwegian drinks water, and this is the answer to the first question of the riddle.

Step 2

Then what are they smoking in the second, blue house, where, as we know, they keep a horse?

This is not the Kools they smoke in the first house (8). And not Old Gold, since whoever smokes them is a snail farmer (7).

Let's say that they smoke Lucky Strikes in it, which means that they drink orange juice here (13). In that case, who can live here? This is not Norwegian - he lives in the first house (10). Not an Englishman - his house is red (2). Not a Spaniard, because a Spaniard keeps a dog (3). Not Ukrainian, because Ukrainian drinks tea (5). And not the Japanese who smokes Parliament (14). Since this situation is impossible, it is not Lucky Strike that is smoked in the second house.

Suppose that Parliament is smoked in the second house, which means that a Japanese person lives here (14). In that case, what is he drinking? Not tea, because tea is drunk by Ukrainians (5). Not coffee - they drink coffee in a green house (4). Not milk - milk is drunk in the third house (9). And not juice, because juice is drunk by the person who smokes Lucky Strike (13). So, this situation is also impossible, and it is not Parliament that is smoked in the second house.

Hence, in the second house they smoke Chesterfield.

What nationality is the person who lives in the second, blue house, prefers Chesterfield and owns a horse? This is not a Norwegian - he is in the first house (10). Not an Englishman - he is in the red house (2). Not a Spaniard - a Spaniard has a dog (3). Non-Japanese - Japanese smokes Parliament (14). This means that a Ukrainian lives in the second house and, as follows from (5), drinks tea!

Step 3

Since Chesterfields are smoked in the second house, then from (11) we know that the fox is kept either in the first or in the third house.

Let's first assume that the fox is in the third house. In that case, what does the person who smokes Old Gold and raises snails (7) drink? We have already excluded water and tea in previous steps. He also cannot drink juice because the juice is being drunk by a person who smokes Lucky Strike (13). Milk is also not suitable - it is drunk in the third house (9), where, as we assumed, the fox is kept. What remains is coffee, which, according to the agreement, is drunk in the green house (4).

So, if a fox is kept in the third house, then in the green house there lives a person who smokes Old Gold, breeds snails and drinks coffee. Who is this man? He is not Norwegian - Norwegian in the first house (10). The non-Ukrainian drinks tea (5). Not an Englishman - he lives in a red house (2). Not Japanese - he smokes Parliament (14). And not a Spaniard - a Spaniard has a dog (3).

This situation is impossible. From which it follows that the fox is kept in the first house, and not in the third.

Step 4

From all of the above it follows that coffee and orange juice are drunk in the fourth and fifth houses. It doesn't matter which drink is in which house; Let’s just call them “the house where they drink juice” and “the house where they drink coffee.”

So where does the man who smokes Old Gold and raises snails live? Not in a house where they drink juice, because that's where they smoke Lucky Strike (13).

Suppose he lives in a house where they drink coffee. Then the person who smokes Old Gold, breeds snails and drinks coffee lives in a green (4) house. Again, for the same reasons as in step 3, this is not possible.

This means that the person who smokes Old Gold and breeds snails lives in the third house.

It follows that Parliament smokes in the green house where they drink coffee, and a Japanese man lives there (14). This means that a Spaniard is someone who drinks orange juice, smokes Lucky Strikes and owns a dog. Continuing this reasoning, we come to the conclusion that an Englishman should live in the third house, and this house is red. By the method of elimination we find that the Spaniard's house is white.

Now we have filled in all the blanks except one, and it is obvious that the zebra is being held by a Japanese man.

Answer

Comment

The above solution implicitly assumed that the first house is the one on the far left. If we assume that the first house is the one on the far right, we get a slightly different situation, but the same answer. The Norwegian is still drinking water, and the Japanese is holding a zebra.

Other formulations of the problem conditions

There are many different options for problem conditions. In some of them, the first premise of the original condition is specified separately or implied implicitly, and instead of it another one is introduced, which often facilitates the solution of the problem. Instead of two questions, they often leave one, for example, “Who breeds fish?” Sometimes, instead of brands of cigarettes, vehicles or names of plants are indicated. The nationalities of the five people mentioned also change. For example, a very common option on the Internet is the following:

On one street there are five houses in a row, each with its own color. Each one contains a person, all five are of different nationalities. Each person prefers a unique brand of cigarette, drink and pet. Besides:

1. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
2. An Englishman lives in a red house.
3. The green house is to the left of the white one, next to it.
4. The Dane is drinking tea.
5. Someone who smokes Marlboro lives next to someone who raises cats.
6. The one who lives in the yellow house smokes Dunhill.
7. The German smokes Rothmans.
8. The one who lives in the center drinks milk.
9. The neighbor who smokes Marlboro drinks water.
10. Anyone who smokes Pall Mall raises birds.
11. The Swede raises dogs.
12. A Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
13. The one who raises horses lives in a blue house.
14. Anyone who smokes Winfield drinks beer.
15. They drink coffee in the green house.

Who breeds fish?

There are also interpretations of the problem conditions online, in which the green and white houses are located to the left or right of each other, but not necessarily next to each other. Such a condition makes sense only when some additional data is specified, for example, when the direction of house numbering is explicitly specified. Otherwise, it will not be possible to obtain an unambiguous solution.

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Albert Einstein is known not only for his research and discoveries, several hundred works on physics and books and articles in the field of journalism, history and philosophy, but also for other interesting facts. Not everyone knows that even before becoming a scientist, he created a most interesting problem. It is called Einstein's riddle and this article is dedicated to it.

Einstein's riddle

There are several opinions about the appearance of Einstein's riddle. According to one, Albert Einstein created it as a child. According to another, he created it later to test the ability of candidates for the position of his assistants to think logically. Also, the authorship of the problem is sometimes attributed to the English writer and scientist Lewis Carroll. But there is no precise evidence of the authorship of either the first or the second. In addition, the condition of the problem, which we will consider below, mentions the brand of American cigarettes “Kool”, which did not yet exist during the lifetime of the alleged authors.

According to some researchers, Einstein said that only 2% of all people can operate in their minds with patterns that are associated with five different signs at once. For this reason, Einstein's riddle without using paper can only be solved by those who belong to this 2%. In addition, a mental solution is assumed to be the most difficult version of the problem. If you use paper and take notes, then the riddle is noticeably simplified and can be solved quite simply, and its solution will no longer say anything about the abilities of the subject.

So, the task.

Original text of Einstein's riddle

Riddle text:

1. There are five houses on the street.
2. An Englishman lives in a red house.
3. The Spaniard is holding a dog.
4. Ukrainians love tea.
5. The green house is located immediately to the right of the white house.
6. Smoking Old Gold, breeding snails.
7. A Kool smoker lives in a yellow house.
8. In the house in the center they drink milk.
9. A Norwegian lives in house No. 1.
10. A neighbor of a Chesterfield smoker who keeps a fox in his house.
11. In the house next to the one where the horse is kept, there lives a Kool smoker.
12. Smoking Lucky Strike, loves orange juice.
13. The Japanese smokes Parliament.
14. The Norwegian lives in a house located next to the blue house.

Question: Who drinks water and who holds the zebra?

For a more precise understanding, we need to add that all the houses are painted different colors, and all their inhabitants are representatives of different nationalities, they keep different animals, prefer different drinks, and also smoke different brands of cigarettes. And note: when it says right, it means to your right. The original condition, however, does not indicate that the houses are in a row, and there is no information that anyone can drink water or keep a zebra. Those. the premises for solving the riddle can be called implicit (in comparison with other similar logical problems), which significantly complicates the solution.

Solving Einstein's riddle

The steps below to solve the riddle are deductive in nature. And the point of the solution is to try to fit the available data into the table, one after another excluding options that are impossible.

Step #1(points of the riddle text are indicated in brackets)

According to the condition, the Norwegian lives in house No. 1 (10). Where the countdown starts is not important, because... We are not concerned with the direction of numbering of houses, but only with their order. (10) and (15) indicate that house No. 2 is blue. So what color is house number 1? It can be neither green nor white, because... they should be nearby based on the color of house No. 2 and (6). Also, house No. 1 is not red, because... An Englishman lives in red. Accordingly, house No. 1 is yellow.

It follows that in house No. 1 they smoke Kool cigarettes (8), and in house No. 2 there is a horse (12). The Norwegian from yellow house No. 1, who smokes Kool, does not drink tea (5), does not drink coffee (4), does not drink milk (9) and does not drink orange juice (13). It turns out that the Norwegian is the one who drinks the water.

Step #2

What kind of cigarettes do they smoke in blue house No. 2, where there is a horse?

"Kool" is smoked in house No. 1 (8). “Old Gold” is smoked by the one who has snails in the house (7). If, for example, we assume that in house No. 2 they smoke “Lucky Strike”, then it turns out that they also prefer orange juice (13). So who can live in house No. 2? Not Norwegian (10), not English (2), not Spanish (3), not Ukrainian (5) and not Japanese (14). But such a situation cannot exist, which means this is not “Lucky Strike”.

If we assume that this is “Parliament”, then it turns out that a Japanese person lives in house No. 2 (14). But what is he drinking? Not tea (5), not coffee (4), not milk (9) and not juice (13). This option cannot exist either, which means it is not “Parliament”. There is only one conclusion: in house No. 2 they smoke Chesterfield.

Who lives in blue house No. 2, smokes Chesterfield and has a horse? He cannot be Norwegian (10), English (2), Spanish (3) or Japanese (14). Accordingly, this is a Ukrainian who drinks tea (5).

Step #3

Considering that Chesterfield is smoked in house No. 2, then from (11) it becomes clear that the fox is either in house No. 1 or in house No. 3. But which one?

To begin with, let's say that the fox is in house number 3. Then what does a man who smokes Old Gold and raises snails drink? Because water and tea are already excluded in the first two steps and it cannot be juice (13) and milk (9), then what remains is coffee, which the resident of the green house drinks (4). Therefore, if the fox is in house No. 3, then in the green house there lives a person who smokes Old Gold, breeds snails and drinks coffee. Who is he? This is not Norwegian (10), not Ukrainian (5), not English (2), not Japanese (14) and not Spanish (3). This option cannot exist, which means the fox is in house No. 1.

Step #4

Based on all the previous thoughts, it turns out that orange juice and coffee are drunk in the remaining houses No. 5 and No. 4. It doesn’t matter in which or what. Therefore, let’s just call them “house with juice” and “house with coffee”.

Where does the man who smokes Old Gold and breeds snails live? Not in the house with juice, because... there lives someone who smokes Lucky Strike (13). Let's say he lives in a house with coffee. It turns out that a person who smokes Old Gold, breeds snails and drinks coffee lives in a green house (4). And this, again, cannot be (we are guided by the reasoning from step No. 3). It turns out that the man who smokes Old Gold and breeds snails lives in house No. 3.

From all this it follows that a person who smokes Parliament lives in a green house where they love coffee. And this is Japanese (14). It then turns out that a person smoking Lucky Strike, drinking orange juice and holding a dog is a Spaniard. Thinking in the same way, we find that the Englishman should live in house No. 3, which should be red. Excluding everything else, we come to the conclusion that the Spaniard lives in a white house.

Obviously, the zebra is in the Japanese man's house.

The answer to Einstein's riddle

But there is one thing to consider here: in the solution we presented, it was assumed that house No. 1 is on the far left. If we imagine that house No. 1 is on the far right, then the situation will change a little, but the answer will be the same:

This is Einstein's riddle and the principles for solving it. It looks, by and large, not very difficult. But keep in mind that we solved the problem in writing. Surely not everyone can solve it in their minds. Try your luck and try to repeat the solution without using any available means. If you don’t want to solve an already familiar problem, you can rack your brains over a slightly different formulation.

Another version of Einstein's riddle

There are five houses in a row on one street. Each house is a different color. The residents of each house represent different nationalities, smoke different cigarettes, drink different drinks and keep different pets. Plus to this:

1. A Norwegian lives in house No. 1.
2. An Englishman lives in a red house.
3. The green house stands to the left of the white house, next to it.
4. The Dane loves tea.
5. The Marlboro smoker lives next to someone who keeps cats.
6. The tenant of the yellow house smokes Dunhill.
7. The German smokes Rothmans.
8. A resident of the central house drinks milk.
9. A neighbor smoking Marlboro drinks water.
10. The Pall Mall smoker raises birds.
11. The Swede keeps dogs.
12. A Norwegian lives in a house next to the blue house.
13. The one who keeps horses lives in a blue house.
14. Smoking Winfield, drinking beer.
15. They drink coffee in a green house.

Question: Which of the residents breeds fish?

Good luck in solving this problem!

There are five houses of different colors: red, green, white, yellow and blue. Each is inhabited by people of different nationalities: German, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and English. Each of them drinks one type of drink, smokes one brand of cigarettes and owns one pet. Each of them is unique within the group (drink, brand of cigarettes, animal is not repeated!).

Question: who keeps the fish if:

1. The Englishman lives in a red house;

2. The Swede is holding a dog;

3. The Dane drinks tea;

4. The green house is to the left of the white one, and its tenant is drinking coffee;

5. Camel smoker holding a bird;

6. The resident of the house in the middle drinks milk;

7. The tenant of the yellow house smokes Dunhill;

8. A Norwegian lives in the first house;

9. A Marlboro smoker lives next to the cat owner;

10. The horse owner lives next to the Dunhill smoker”;

11. The Kent smoker drinks beer;

12. Norwegian's house - next to the blue house;

13. The German smokes Rothmans;

14. A Marlboro smoker lives next to someone who drinks water.

Answer

The following version with the definition of the owner of the fish has become widespread on the Internet. I present this option because of my love for fish :). The logical structure is the same, the features have been renamed.

TASK.
On one street there are five houses in a row, each with a different color. Each one contains a person, all five are of different nationalities. Each person prefers a unique brand of cigarette, drink and pet. Besides:
(1) Norwegian lives in first home.
(2) Englishman lives in red home.
(3) Green the house is to the left of white, next to him.
(4) Dane drinks tea.
(5) Someone who smokes Marlboro, lives next to someone who grows cats.
(6) One who lives in yellow at home, smoking Dunhill.
(7) German smokes Rothmans.
(8) He who lives in the center, drinks milk.
(9) Neighbor of someone who smokes Marlboro, drinks water.
(10) Someone who smokes Pall Mall, grows birds.
(11) Swede grows dogs.
(12) Norwegian lives next to blue home.
(13) The one who grows horses, lives in blue home.
(14) The one who smokes Winfield, drinks beer.
(15) V green drinking at home coffee.

QUESTION:
Who breeds fish?

PROGRESS OF THINKING:

According to the condition, the Norwegian lives in the first house (1). From (12) it follows that the second house is blue.
What color is the first house? It cannot be either green or white, because houses of these two colors must be located next to each other (3). It cannot be red either, because an Englishman lives in a red house (2). So, the first house is yellow.
Therefore, in the first house they smoke Dunhill (6), and in the second house they keep a horse (13).

What does the Norwegian (who lives in the first, yellow house and smokes Dunhill) drink? This is not tea, because the Dane drinks tea (4). And not coffee, because they drink coffee in a green house (15). And not the milk that is drunk in the third house (8). And not beer, because the person who drinks beer smokes Winfield (14).
Accordingly, the Norwegian drinks water.

From (9) it follows that the person living in the second, blue house smokes Marlboro.
What nationality is the person who lives in the second, blue house, prefers Marlboro and owns a horse? This is not a Norwegian - he is in the first house (1). Not an Englishman - he is in the red house (2). Not a Swede - a Swede has a dog (11). Not a German - he smokes Rothmans (7).
This means that a Dane lives in the second house and, as follows from (4), drinks tea.

The green house cannot be the third, because they drink coffee in it, not milk (15). The green house cannot be the fifth house because there is a house (3) to the right of it. Therefore, the green house is the fourth. This means that the white house is the fifth, and the red house is the third, and an Englishman lives in it (2). They drink coffee in the green house, and only beer remains for the white house. From (14) it follows that Winfield is smoked in the white house.

Where does the German who smokes Rothmans live (7)? He can only live in the fourth, green house. This means that a person who smokes Pall Mall and raises birds can only live in the third, red house - he is an Englishman.

Then the Swede, who has a dog (11), is left with the fifth house. According to condition (5), the cat lives in the first or third house, but in the third house there are birds, which means the cat is in the first house.

ANSWER:
A GERMAN KEEPS A FISH.

Incredible facts

According to some information, the following riddle was invented by Albert Einstein himself, when he was very young.

Moreover, it is believed that the problem is so difficult that it can be solved only 2 percent of the world's population.

Do you think you can solve it?

Einstein's riddle about the five houses

There's a hundred in a row on the streetit 5 houses of different colors. In each house there lives one person with a different name and different nationality. Each home owner drinks a certain type of drink, smokes a certain brand of cigars, and each has a certain pet. None of them have the same pet, smoke the same brand of cigar, or drink the same drink.

Here are some clues to this riddle:

1. The British man lives in a red house.

2. The Swede keeps a dog as a pet.

3. The Dane drinks tea.

4. The green house is located directly to the left of the white house.

5. The owner of a green house drinks coffee.

6. The owner who smokes Pall Mall is holding a bird.

7. The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill.

8. The owner living in the central house drinks milk.

9. The Norwegian lives in the first house.

10. The owner who smokes Blends lives next to someone who keeps cats.

11. The owner who keeps the horse lives next to the one who smokes Dunhill.

12. The owner who smokes Bluemasters drinks beer.

13. The German smokes Prince.

14. A Norwegian lives next to the blue house.

15. The owner who smokes Blends lives next to the one who drinks water.

Question: Which owner keeps the fish?

The answer to Einstein's riddle

The best way to solve the riddle is to draw a table like the one below and fill it with the answers.