The Singular Mind

Riddle me this, Batman...

I found this puzzle on one of my favorite blogs, Neatorama, who in turn found it on Coudal Partners. Supposedly, it was created by Albert Einstein, who claimed that only 2% of the people in the world could do it. I did it in less than five minutes with a pen and a piece of paper (after one false start from reading a clue wrong), so I doubt that only that small amount of people can solve it, but it was a fair bit of logic, so if you can do it, congratulate yourself. Maybe people were just more stupid in Einstein's day, or didn't play as much Sudoku.

Here's the puzzle:

This brainteaser, reportedly written by Einstein is difficult and Einstein said that 98% of the people in the world could not figure it out. Which percentage are you in?

There are five houses in a row in different colors. In each house lives a person with a different nationality. The five owners drink a different drink, smoke a different brand of cigar and keep a different pet, one of which is a Walleye Pike.

The question is-- who owns the fish?

Hints:
1. The Brit lives in the 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 Malls keeps birds.
7. The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhills.
8. The man living in the house right in the center drinks milk.
9. The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats.
10. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
11. The man who keeps horses lives next to the one who smokes Dunhills.
12. The owner who smokes Bluemasters drinks beer.
13. The German smokes Princes.
14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
15. The man who smokes Blends has a neighbor who drinks water.

There are no tricks, pure logic will get you the correct answer. And yes, there is enough information to arrive at the one and only correct answer.

If you get the correct answer, congratulations, you are one of the exclusive group of 121,348,731 people in the world who can.

The answer can be found here, on the original page the puzzle came from. Scroll down to Note IV and click the link.

Good luck, and Merry Christmas!

Labels: Things of Interest

posted by Jeremy @ 11:26 AM