Thursday, February 9, 2012

Who owns the Zebra?

I absolutely love logic problems.  The one attributed to Einstein (sometimes called 'Einstein's puzzle' or 'the Zebra puzzle' or 'Einstein's Zebra Puzzle) is the classic and my most favorite.  The goal is to discover who drank water and who owns the zebra by using the clues below.  If there is any interest in a step by step on how to solve it, please leave a comment and I'll write one out and how it can be easily solved.  You do not need a grid to solve it although that may be helpful for some.  I'll post the solution in a couple of days (maybe in a previous post so you don't accidentally see it before you want the answer)  Answer can also be found online.  Find out what house position is which color, what is the nationality of the person who lives there, what type of pet they own, what type of cigarette they smoked, and what beverage they drank.  None of them share any common attribute.  Not mentioned in the clues is water or the zebra but they can be figured out.  This version was originally published in Life Magazine in 1962 and this is the original version.  I solved this version in 15 minutes.  I think only INTJs can solve it since supposedly only 2% of the people are said to be able to solve it without cheating:

   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 a 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.

2 comments:

  1. If there is any interest in a step by step on how to solve it, please leave a comment and I'll write one out and how it can be easily solved.

    I agree that, as logic problems go, this is an extremely easy puzzle to solve. I also have a step-by-step solution for it, though my solution involves using a grid. I'd like to see your solution which, I'm guessing, doesn't involve a grid. But even if it does, I'd still like to see it.

    Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  2. To who left the comment I did not publish. Leave the details and your email address and I will contact you (and will not publish your comment with your email address)

    ReplyDelete

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