Riddle me this...

[Odds]

Okay; so not exactly a word game - but can you solve Einstein's 'House Riddle'?

There are five houses lined up next to each other along a street. Each house is a different colour, and each homeowner is of a different nationality, drinks a different beverage, smokes a different brand of cigar, and owns a different pet.

If these variables can never repeat from house to house, which homeowner has a pet fish?

You should be able to figure out the answer based on these 15 clues:

1. The Englishman lives in the house with red walls.
2. The Swede keeps dogs.
3. The Dane drinks tea.
4. The house with green walls is just to the left of the house with white walls.
5. The owner of the house with green walls drinks coffee.
6. The man who smokes Pall Mall keeps birds.
7. The owner of the house with yellow walls smokes Dunhills.
8. The man in the centre house drinks milk.
9. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
10. The Blend smoker has a neighbour who keeps cats.
11. The man who smokes Blue Masters drinks beer.
12. The man who keeps horses lives next to the Dunhill smoker.
13. The German smokes Prince.
14. The Norwegian lives next to the house with blue walls.
15. The Blend smoker has a neighbour who drinks water.

Can you solve it?

 

[opps]

I haven't even tried to workout the answer, but I do recall Prince cigarettes. They were the only cigarettes I ever purchased that were high tar and had a filter.

 

[Mottie]

The German.

 

[Odds]

The German.

Why him?

 

[Mottie]

Why him?

Obvious!

 

[Odds]

Obvious!

Not to me it isn't.

Give us a clue.

 

[Mottie]

Not to me it isn't.

Give us a clue.

Err….Google!

 

[opps]

I got as far as working out the order of the house colour, and then gave up. It dawned on me that you have to start guessing and working through each scenario until you find one that works.

But seriously? The Englishman drinks milk...

 

[MNW67]

Give us a clue

Don't look at the table at the bottom of my post if you still want to try it.


That was really fun. Thank you for posting it.

There isn't just one clue to solving. It is a logic/elimination puzzle. Each piece of information seems to lead to another. You start by working out where the Norwegian lives, which is pretty easy. Then it was really hard for the middle bit and made by brain hurt. But things slowly get resolved one bit a time, as you make each leap of logic. It gets easier at the end. I can remember some of how to do it if anyone wants a couple of clues.

I solved it by filling in a matrix as I went along with each new piece of information I found. You end up with only one blank space left (as below) and that gives you the answer to the riddle.




********************************************************************************************************************




EDIT: I've now found a table function to turn my messy columns into a neat layout.

1	2	3	4	5
Yellow	Blue	Red	Green	White
Norwegian	Dane	English	German	Swede
Water	Tea	Milk	Coffee	Beer
Dunhill	Blend	Pall Mall	Prince	Blue Masters
Cats	Horses	Birds	BLANK	Dogs