The “Einstein’s Riddle”

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Before turning physics on its head, Albert Einstein is said to have demonstrated his brilliance by constructing a complicated puzzle containing this collection of clues. Can you resist attempting a brain teaser created by one of history’s most brilliant minds? Let’s see how it goes.

The city aquarium has been robbed of the world’s rarest fish. The smell led the cops to a street with five identical-looking apartments. They can’t search all of the apartments at once, and if they choose the wrong one, the thief will be aware that they’re following him. It’s up to you, the best detective in town, to solve this mystery. The cops will tell you what they know when you arrive on the place. 

  • One, the owner of each apartment is from a different country, enjoys a different drink, and smokes a different cigar.
  • Two, the interior walls of each house are painted a different color.
  • Three: there is a different animal in each dwelling, one of which is a fish. 

You discover some clues after a few hours of excellent investigation. Although there appears to be a lot of data, there is a clear, logical path to the solution. Because solving the puzzle will be similar to Sudoku, you might find it beneficial to organize your data in a grid.

To begin, you must fill in the missing from hints eight and nine. You also notice that, because the Norwegian is at the end of the street, there is only one house next to him, which is the one with the blue walls in clue fourteen. Clue five states that the owner of the green-walled house enjoys coffee. It can’t be the center house, because you know its owner loves milk, and it can’t be the second house, either, because you know it has blue walls. It also can’t be the first or fifth house, because hint four specifies that the green-walled house must be directly to the left of the white-walled one.

The green-walled house with the coffee drinker has no choice but to take the fourth location, leaving the white-walled house to take the fifth. The first clue reveals your nationality and color. Because the middle column is the only one that lacks both of these values, this must be the Brit’s red-walled home. Now since yellow is the remaining unassigned wall color, it must be applied to the first apartment, where the Dunhill smoker is said to live according to clue seven. The horse owner is next door, which can only be the second residence, according to clue eleven. The following stage is to determine what the Norwegian in the first house drinks. It can’t be tea, because the Dane is mentioned in clue three.

It can’t be root beer because that individual smokes Bluemaster, and it has to be water because you previously allocated milk and coffee, according to hint twelve. You know the Norwegian’s neighbor, who can only be in the second house, smokes Blends because of clue fifteen. Now that the fifth column is the only area in the grid without a cigar or a drink, it must be the person’s residence in clue twelve.

Because the second house is the only one without a drink, the tea-drinking Dane must dwell there. Because the fourth house is now the only one without a nationality or a cigar brand, it must be home to the Prince-smoking German from clue thirteen. You may deduce that the Brit smokes Pall Mall and the Swede lives in the fifth house through elimination, while clues six and two reveal that they have a bird and a dog, respectively.

Clue number ten reveals that the cat owner lives next door to the Blend-smoking Dane, putting him in the first house. With only one slot on the grid remaining, you know it’s the German in the green-walled house who’s to blame. You and the cops stormed the residence, catching the thief off guard. While that explanation was basic, there are many false starts and dead ends when solving challenges like this.

To narrow in on the proper components, part of the technique is to use the process of elimination and plenty of trial and error, and the more logic puzzles you solve, the better your intuition for when and where there’s enough information to make your conclusions will be. Is it possible that a young Einstein created this puzzle? Most likely not. There’s no proof, and some of the brands identified are far too new. However, the logic is not dissimilar to that used to solve equations involving several variables, including those defining the nature of the cosmos.

Ali Kaya

Author

Ali Kaya

This is Ali. Bespectacled and mustachioed father, math blogger, and soccer player. I also do consult for global math and science startups.

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