Einstein's riddle about houses solution. Einstein's riddle is a logic puzzle. The original text of the problem

Incredible Facts

According to some reports, the following riddle was invented by Albert Einstein himself, being 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.

How do you think you can solve it?

Einstein's Five Houses Riddle

On the street in one row a hundredit 5 houses of different colors. Each house has one person with a different name and different nationality. Each household owner drinks a certain type of drink, smokes a certain brand of cigar, and each has a certain pet. None of them keep the same pet, smoke the same brand of cigars, or drink the same drink.

Here are some clues to this riddle:

1. The Briton 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 the green house drinks coffee.

6. The owner who smokes Pall Mall keeps 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 the one 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. 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 in with the answers.

Instruction

Let us recall the essence of the problem. On one of them there are 5 houses of different colors, people of different nationalities live in them. They all drink different drinks, smoke different brands of cigarettes and breed. Q: Who raises the fish?
At the same time, it is known that:
1. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
2. An Englishman lives in a red house.
3. The green house is directly to the left of the white house.
4. The Dane drinks tea.
5. Someone who smokes Rothmans lives next to someone who grows .
6. The one who lives in the yellow house smokes Dunhill.
7. A German smokes a Marlboro.
8. The one who lives in the center drinks milk.
9. A neighbor who smokes Rothmans drinks water.
10. Anyone who smokes Pall Mall raises birds.
11. The Swede grows.
12. A Norwegian lives next to a blue house.
13. The one who grows lives in a blue house.
14. Anyone who smokes Philip Morris drinks beer.
15. They drink coffee in a green house.
Draw a table. Indicate all signs of houses and their numbers.

We fill in the table. Let's start simple. So, the Norwegian lives in the first house (1), which is next to the blue one (12). Therefore, house number 2 is blue. The owner of the central house, i.e. #3, drinks milk (8). Horses are raised in the blue house (13). Now, logically, you can fill in the rest of the table.

It's easiest to start with the line "color of the house". According to the condition of the problem, the green house is located directly to the left of the white one (3). This house can be #3 or #4. Green cannot be the first house, because to the left of it is blue. We also know that in the green house they drink coffee (15), and in the house number 3 they drink milk. So, the green house is No. 4, respectively, the house No. 5 is white. Learn the colors of the remaining two houses. It is known that the Englishman lives in the red house (2). In the first one - a Norwegian, which means that an Englishman lives in house number 3 and his color is red. Therefore, the first house is yellow, its owner smokes Dunhill(6).

Now let's find out what drinks these people prefer. The easiest way to determine what the Norwegian drinks. We know that in the third house they drink milk, and in green coffee. The Dane is drinking tea (4). A Philip Morris smoker drinks beer (14), but a Norwegian smokes Dunhill. From which we conclude that he drinks water.

Go ahead. Find out who lives in the blue house. His owner smokes Rothmans and breeds horses. It's not Norwegian or English. The Swede also cannot live in this house because he raises dogs. Not German as he smokes Marlboro. So this is a Dane and he is drinking tea (4).
Beer is drunk by the one who lives in the white house and smokes Philip Morris (14).

We do not know the owners of houses No. 4 and No. 5. A German cannot live in a white house because he smokes Marlboro. This means that the Swede lives in a white house and breeds dogs (11), and the German lives in a green one.

The table shows that the remaining brand of cigarettes (Pall Mall) is smoked by an Englishman who also breeds birds (10). The Norwegian, proceeding from item 5, breeds cats. We still have one who breeds fish - this is a German.

Problem solved.
What at first glance seems unsolvable, upon closer examination turns out to be simple.
Logic puzzles are not just fun, they are a warm-up for the brain.

note

An uncle lived without a wife and without children, And he was much in a lot of wonderful undertakings. He indicated a fad in his will, That the one who would guess the Riddle from Einstein about houses and people, About who lived in them, drank and what had And a competition was arranged among the servants and among the relatives All of them competed together And was the first to answer the question.

Helpful advice

Einstein's riddle is a well-known logical problem, according to legend, created by Albert Einstein during his childhood. There is also an opinion that it is. If we assume that the first house is on the far right, we get a slightly different situation, but the same answer. An uncle lived without a wife and without children, And he was much in a lot of wonderful undertakings. He indicated a fad in his will, That the one who would guess the Riddle from Einstein about houses and about people, About who lived in them, will get the most.

Sources:

The task.

There is an opinion that only 2% of the world's population can solve Einstein's famous logical problem about five foreigners. This is partly true, because it is impossible for the average person to operate in the mind on a task that includes twenty-five concepts. But there are simpler and more understandable ways to solve this tricky riddle of the great physicist.

The hunter suddenly ran nose to nose with a bear in a wasteland. Both were frightened and ran in different directions: the hunter - to the north, and the bear - to the west. After running some distance, the hunter came to his senses, pointed his gun exactly to the South, fired and killed the bear.
What color was the bear?

This story took place at the North Pole. When the hunter fired, he must have been directly at the very center of the North Pole. Is it more or less clear now? It will not be difficult to guess that the bear could be exclusively WHITE. I've heard other solutions to this puzzle (even ones that say there are no bears at the North and South Poles), but the explanation above seems to me the most reasonable.

Neighbours

Some claim that this riddle was created by Einstein as a child and that 98% of people will not be able to solve this problem.
There are 5 houses of different colors on the street. Each house is inhabited by a person of a different nationality. Everyone has their favorite drink, everyone has their own brand of cigarettes, and everyone has their own distinct pet.

The Englishman lives in the red house.
The Swede is holding a dog.
The Dane drinks tea.
The green house is next to the white house, on the left.
The owner of the green house loves coffee.
The person who smokes Pall Mall breeds birds.
The owner of the yellow house prefers to smoke Dunhill.
The man who lives in the middle of the house drinks only milk.
The Norwegian lives in the first house.
The person who smokes "Blends" lives next door to the owner of the cats.
The owner of the horse lives next door to the Dunhill smoker.
The one who smokes "Blue Master" drinks beer.
The German prefers Prince cigarettes.
The house of the Norwegian stands next to the blue house.
One of the Blends smoker's neighbors only drinks water.

Who breeds fish?
Are you one of the 2% who can solve this problem?

Thinking is one of the most important cognitive processes, without which the normal functioning of the human brain is impossible. There are several types of thinking. One of them is logical thinking.

Every person has logical thinking, but in some it is well developed, while in others it is not too. There are many methods for developing logical thinking. This includes all kinds of tasks in which certain logical connections are given, and a person, analyzing them, must find a solution. One of the well-known logical problems is Einstein's riddle. Let's see what this problem is and how to solve it.

What is the Einstein riddle?

It is believed that this riddle was invented by the famous physicist Albert Einstein during his childhood. There is an opinion according to which Einstein claimed that only 2% of the world's population can solve this problem in their minds. The remaining 98% of people are unable to analyze several logical patterns at the same time without using paper and pencil. True, there is no written evidence that the famous physicist really claimed something like that, but this does not make Einstein's problem any less interesting.

Anyone who wants to test their thinking skills should try to solve this puzzle. It should be noted that it is quite difficult to do this in the mind, so it is better to write down the decision on paper. So let's get started.

How to solve the riddle of Einstein?

To solve the Einstein riddle, you will need a piece of paper and a pencil or pen. During the solution, you will need to draw several tables and fill them with data.

The task:

Five people live in 5 houses of different colors, breed different animals, smoke different brands of cigarettes and drink different drinks. Question: which of these five breeds aquarium fish?

The American lives in the first house.
A Chinese man is in a red house.
The brown house is located more to the left than the gray one.
The Italian loves to drink tea.
A person who prefers Camel cigarettes lives next door to someone who breeds nutria.
A man living in an orange house smokes President cigarettes.
The Austrian loves Lucky Strike cigarettes.
A person living in the central house drinks kefir.
The person who lives next to someone who smokes Camel drinks the juice.
A man who smokes Chesterfield cigarettes raises chickens.
Finn is a cow raiser.
The American lives next door to the blue house.
A man who breeds zebras lives in the blue house.
A man who loves whiskey smokes Parliament cigarettes.
A person living in a brown house loves Coca-Cola.

The solution of the problem :

Based on the conditions of the problem, the following data can be distinguished: – Nationality: American, Chinese, Italian, Austrian, Finn. - Color Houses: red, blue, brown, orange, grey.
- Cigarettes: Camel, Lucky Strike, President, Chesterfield, Parliament.

- Beverages: kefir, juice, Coca-Cola, whiskey, tea.

- Animals: nutria, chickens, cows, zebras, fish.
Draw a table:
We enter the available data into the table: - The American lives in the first house. - The person who breeds zebras lives in the blue house.
The American lives next door to the blue house.

- A person living in the central house drinks kefir.
We calculate in which house the American lives. He cannot live in red, because there is a Chinese. He can't live in blue either, because blue is next door. The brown house cannot belong to him either, since the gray house is to the right of the brown house, and the blue house is to the right of the American. The brown house is located to the left of the gray one, and the house in which the American lives is the most left, which means that he cannot live in the gray house. Thus, it turns out that the American lives in an orange house and loves President cigarettes.
Since the brown house is located to the left of the gray one, it will have number 3 or number 4. The person living in house number 3 drinks kefir, and the person living in the brown house drinks Coca-Cola. It turns out that the brown house has number 4. It follows that the gray house has number 5, and the red house has number 3. A Chinese lives in the red house. In house number 4 they drink Coca-Cola.
We calculate what kind of drink the Austrian drinks. Whoever smokes Parliament drinks whiskey. The Austrian smokes Lucky Strike, so it's not him. Kefir is drunk by a Chinese, and tea by an Italian. It turns out that the drink of the Austrian is juice or Coca-Cola. An American cannot be a whiskey drinker because Parliament does not smoke. An American cannot drink kefir either (this is a Chinese drink), Coca-Cola is drunk by the one who lives in a brown house (and this is not an American), tea is also drunk not by an American, but by an Italian. It turns out that the American drinks juice. So, the drink of the Austrian is Coca-Cola. In addition, the Austrian smokes Lucky Strike cigarettes. And since the American drinks juice, his neighbor from house number 2 smokes Camel.
In house number 2, zebras are bred. Finn breeds cows, therefore he cannot live in house number 2. It turns out that the Finn lives in house number 5, which is gray. Then an Italian (tea lover) lives in house number 2.
The man who prefers Chesterfield cigarettes is a chicken farmer. It turns out that this is not a Finn, but a Chinese. Then it turns out that the Finn prefers whiskey and Parliament cigarettes.
A person who prefers Camel cigarettes lives next to a person who breeds nutria. Camel cigarettes are preferred by the Italian who lives at number 2. The Chinese who breeds chickens lives to his right. It turns out that the neighbor of the Italian on the left breeds nutria (this is an American).

Now you can answer the question: who grows fish? Answer: fish is raised by an Austrian.

Such entertaining puzzles and logic tasks allow you not only to have fun looking for clues, but also to train your thinking.

Einstein's square problem

There are also several problems attributed to Einstein, although this is doubtful due to their simplicity compared to the previous problem.

How many squares do you see in the picture?

Squares 1:1 - 16 pcs.
Squares 2:2 - 9 pcs.
Squares 3:3 - 4 pcs.
Squares 4:4 - 1 pc.
Total: 30 pieces

Riddle about triangles

How many triangles do you see?

The answer is 7.

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

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

In its most complex form, the problem involves a mental solution, without the use of any records or means of storing information. Without these constraints, the puzzle loses markedly in complexity, since it can be solved by simple tabulation, excluding obviously inconsistent options, and therefore says little about the ability of the subject.

The original text of the problem

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

There are five houses on the street.

The Spaniard has a dog.

They drink coffee in the green house.

The Ukrainian is drinking tea.

The green house is immediately to the right of the white house.

Whoever smokes Old Gold breeds snails.

Kools are smoked in the yellow house.

Milk is drunk in the central house.

The Norwegian lives in the first house.

The neighbor of the one who smokes Chesterfield keeps a fox.

Kools are smoked in the house next door to the one where the horse is kept.

Anyone who smokes Lucky Strike drinks orange juice.

A Japanese smokes Parliament.

Who drinks water? Who is 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 right relative to You.

original text(English)

There are five houses.

The Englishman lives in the red house.

The Spaniard owns the dog.

Coffee is drunk in the green house.

The Ukrainian drinks tea.

The green house is immediately to the right of the ivory house.

The Old Gold smoker owns snails.

Kools are smoked in the yellow house.

Milk is drunk in the middle house.

The Norwegian lives in the first house.

The man who smokes Chesterfields lives in the house next to the man with the fox.

Kools are smoked in the house next to the house where the horse is kept.

The Lucky Strike smoker drinks orange juice.

The Japanese smokes Parliaments.

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 cigarets. One other thing: in statement 6, right means your right.

The premise omits some essential details, such as the fact that the houses are in a row.

Since the condition does not say that anyone drinks water or keeps a zebra at all, these statements rely on implicit premises, as is customary in such logical problems. Otherwise, the answer will be "Not enough data".

Premise 12 in the original wording is not entirely correct. 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 extreme left or the extreme right. And this leads to a contradiction.

Solution

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

Step 1

By convention, the Norwegian lives in the first house (10). It doesn't 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 should be side by side (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 the houses of these two colors must be located side by side (3). It also cannot be red, because an Englishman lives in a red house (2). That's why the first house is yellow.

It follows that Kools are smoked in the first house (8) and a horse is kept in the second house (12).

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

Step 2

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

This is not Kools, which is smoked in the first house (8). And not Old Gold, because whoever smokes them breeds snails (7).

Let's assume that they smoke Lucky Strikes in it, which means that orange juice is drunk here (13). In that case, who can live here? This is not a 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 a Ukrainian, because a Ukrainian drinks tea (5). And not a Japanese who smokes Parliament (14). Since this situation is impossible, Lucky Strike is not smoked in the second house.

Suppose Parliament is smoked in the second house, which implies that a Japanese person lives there (14). In that case, what does he drink? Not tea, because Ukrainians drink tea (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 a person who smokes Lucky Strike (13). So, this situation is also impossible, and it is not Parliament that smokes in the second house.

Hence, in the second house they smoke Chesterfield.

What is the nationality of the person who lives in the second, blue house, prefers Chesterfield and keeps a horse? This is not a Norwegian - he is in the first house (10). Not an Englishman - he is in a red house (2). Not a Spaniard - a Spaniard has a dog (3). Not a Japanese - a 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, we know from (11) 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 a person who smokes Old Gold and breeds snails drink (7)? We have already excluded water and tea in the previous steps. He also cannot drink juice, as the juice is 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, they keep a fox. There remains coffee, which, according to the condition, is drunk in a green house (4).

So, if a fox is kept in the third house, then a person who smokes Old Gold, breeds snails and drinks coffee lives in the green house. Who is this man? He is not Norwegian - Norwegian in the first house (10). Not a Ukrainian - he 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).

Such a 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; we will simply call them "the house where they drink juice" and "the house where they drink coffee."

So where does the person who smokes Old Gold and breeds snails live? Not in a juice-drinking house because 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.

So the person who smokes Old Gold and breeds snails lives in the third house.

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

Now we have filled in all the gaps except for one, and it is obvious that the Japanese is holding the zebra.

Answer

Comment

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