LSAT 'logic game'!

Law School Admissions LSAT Prep and Discussion Forum
1

Ok, quick quiz for y’all that think you are good at LSAT logic games. No time limit. Einstein came up with this one back in the 19th century. He said that 98% of the world’s population couldn’t answer it. Check it out:

ALBERT EINSTEIN’S RIDDLE

ARE YOU IN THE TOP 2% OF INTELLIGENT PEOPLE IN THE WORLD? SOLVE THE RIDDLE AND FIND OUT.

There are no tricks, just pure logic, so good luck and don’t give up.

  1. In a street there are five houses, painted five different colours.
  2. In each house lives a person of different nationality
  3. These five homeowners each drink a different kind of beverage, smoke different brand of cigar and keep a different pet.

THE QUESTION: WHO OWNS THE FISH?

HINTS

  1. The Brit lives in a red house.
  2. The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
  3. The Dane drinks tea.
  4. The Green house is next to, and on the left of the White house.
  5. The owner of the Green house drinks coffee.
  6. The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds.
  7. The owner of the Yellow house smokes Dunhill.
  8. The man living in the centre house drinks milk.
  9. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
  10. The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats.
  11. The man who keeps horses lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill.
  12. The man who smokes Blue Master drinks beer.
  13. The German smokes Prince.
  14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
  15. The man who smokes Blends has a neighbour who drinks water.



    Please don’t post the answer in this topic! If you want to check if you’re correct, google Einstein’s Riddle.
2

Nobody owns the fish, because no fish is mentioned in the hints.

On a separate note, the Prince brand of cigarette didn’t come out until after Einstein had died, so there is no way Einstein came up with this riddle

3

Cool info! But you’re wrong about the answer. :sunglasses:

4

Technically I’m correct.

I’ve done this logic game before and am too lazy to do it again, but I’m certain more than 2% of the population is capable of completing the puzzle

Edit: this has been shown on TLS before. I’m too lazy to dig up the original post, though

5

Gotta agree about more than 2% of the population doing it. Certaintly more than 2% of the LSAT-taking population.

6

I cant think right now but I will try it tomorrow :mrgreen:

7

Disappointing… New and Used CDs was harder than this…

8

I lol’d.

9

Fish is a random variable, which is very common in Logic Games. The only difference here is the riddle doesn’t define the set for you, so you’d need to hunt out the list of variables yourself.

Also, the fact that the question is about the random variable implies that you’ll only find a solution once most of the diagram is set up, with the key inference usually being no slots being left for that variable to fit into. (This was the case here).

Btw, I don’t agree with the solution that Google turns up. The answer is correct, but the explanation was wrong in concluding that the whole diagram can be filled out. If I’m not mistaken, there are actually two possible setups to this riddle, both of which result in the same person owning the fish.

Edit: Never mind, I see now how they could conclusively reduce it down to one solution.

10

Not hard but time consuming with all of those rules.

11

What part of, “please don’t post the correct answer in this topic” do you not understand jackass? Unless you knew you were incorrect in which case you are a jackass and a troll.

12

Whoah… calm down… There was no harm done.

13

This. Got the answer, took the a while because there is a lot of information to sift through.

On a separate note, the Prince brand of cigarette didn’t come out until after Einstein had died, so there is no way Einstein came up with this riddle

[/quote]

There’s several incarnations of this riddle with different items/names in place of the ones given in the OP. Doesn’t mean he didn’t do it (not sure one way or the other), just means that this version can’t be the version he could have come up with if that you said is true.

14

It is neither the correct answer, nor the wrong answer.

Technically, my answer is correct, but not the one the game is looking for.
This makes me a wise-ass, not a jackass

15

Or just a smartass. :stuck_out_tongue: Not worried about posting that, though. It’s not the ‘real’ answer.

And yes, I did this puzzle last night before posting it.

16

I love how people come up with a puzzle or a quote or a philosophy or whatever and say “Einstein did/said/wrote/made it!” and everybody instantly believes it. Also, 100% of people believe made up statistics ftw.

17

LOL I looked through the list twice and didn’t see any mention of a fish. Am I part of the 2% or the 98?

Guess I’m in the 98. I don’t see how you can figure this out unless you just go with the guy who drinks water. Maybe we can conclude that he’s the only one who HAS water? I don’t know.

18

The question mentions it. You can figure out what the five pets are via looking through it. For those of you that doubt, here are the variables:

Colors: Green, Red, Blue, Yellow, White
Nationality: German, Norwegian, Dane, Swede, Brit
Smokes: Pall Mall, Dunhill, Blue Master, Prince, Blends
Beverage: Water, Milk, Coffee, Beer, Tea
Pets: Horse, Cat, Dog, Fish, Birds

As to the water…

  1. In a street there are five houses, painted five different colours.
  2. In each house lives a person of different nationality
    3. These five homeowners each drink a different kind of beverage, smoke different brand of cigar and keep a different pet.
19

This was proven as not to be something that Einstein is associated with (though I’m too lazy to Google it).

However, the original is only 2% of the population can do it IN THEIR HEADS (i.e. without writing anything down). That’s the real challenge.

20

I’m sure anybody can come up with a mathematical problem that a savant can do in his head while an average man can’t. Then, calculate the percentage of the population that is savants, and herp-a-derp-derp-sherp, a problem that only X% of the population can do! (X being a small number).