# Einstein's fish **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 7, 2005, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/einsteins-fish/315976 "2005-08-07T09:27:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2005, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/einsteins-fish/315976/1 "2005-08-07T09:27:11Z")
Well that took way too long. A little web [contest](http://www.coudal.com/thefish.php) for your enjoyment. Or torment. Since it ends on monday we probably should hold off on giving out the answer till tuesday. ---
**Author:** ![Anastasaeon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Anastasaeon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anastasaeon)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2005, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/einsteins-fish/315976/2 "2005-08-07T10:28:22Z")
Phew! I just sat down and did it. It took me forever and a half a notebook of house doodling. I _think_ I got it. Maybe. I entered the contest anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2005, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/einsteins-fish/315976/3 "2005-08-07T10:44:26Z")
Were you worried about which was house 1? I fretted over that for a _long_ time before deciding they must mean house 1 was the furthest left and 5 the furthest right. I still don’t know if I made a mistake because of that. But going through my houses shows complete agreement with all clues. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2005, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/einsteins-fish/315976/4 "2005-08-07T11:48:36Z")
I highly recommend Excel. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Low\_Key\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ed655f/32.png) [@Low\_Key\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Low_Key_1)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2005, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/einsteins-fish/315976/5 "2005-08-07T11:58:29Z")
My friend sent me this puzzle over IM a few days ago. I did it then because I was bored. Now, maybe I’ll actually get something for it. Assuming I got it right of course. I wasn’t really paying too much attention while I was solving the puzzle - trying to talk on IM and read SDMB at the same time. And I don’t feel like checking over it again - far too lazy for that. I am normally not very good at these types of puzzles because of my lack of patience. I get bored with them and normally decide to do something else with my time (usually this means read SDMB). ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2005, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/einsteins-fish/315976/6 "2005-08-07T12:04:00Z")
He may have changed things around since people it’s a famous one and people were googling the answer. I used a spreadsheet too (Quattro Pro) but I still needed an extra paper to visualize all those “next door to” ones. Hopefully we’ll get to see at least one of our names posted. ---
**Author:** ![JustAnotherGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/58f4c7/32.png) [@JustAnotherGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustAnotherGeek)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2005, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/einsteins-fish/315976/7 "2005-08-07T15:45:29Z")
I had to make one of those logic grids, and a second logic box for the positions of the houses. (If I got it right.) ---
**Author:** ![wolfstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@wolfstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfstu)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2005, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/einsteins-fish/315976/8 "2005-08-07T15:56:26Z")
I also used a speadsheet, and I’ve got an answer. I haven’t yet demonstrated it’s the only one, (but the website says there is only one). Here’s hoping the prize goes to a Doper! ---
**Author:** ![Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spatial_Rift_47)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2005, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/einsteins-fish/315976/9 "2005-08-07T17:30:11Z")
I used a dual system; one part was based on five boxes representing the positions of the houses (in which I wrote clues), and the other part was a table listing the information as per the nationality of the owner. It took me a little longer than it should have, but I’ve checked my answer against the clues, and it seems to me that the owner of the fish is the German. Anyone else agree? ---
**Author:** ![GreyWanderer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7cd45c/32.png) [@GreyWanderer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreyWanderer)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2005, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/einsteins-fish/315976/10 "2005-08-07T17:48:36Z")
I just entered all the info into a spreadsheet, including a row for house position. Used x and x+1 for that “to the right of” clue. Used a column for all clues, then tried to combine columns as best I could. I had to take one guess for it all to work out. ---
**Author:** ![JustAnotherGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/58f4c7/32.png) [@JustAnotherGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustAnotherGeek)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2005, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/einsteins-fish/315976/11 "2005-08-07T18:21:24Z")
**SR47:** I hope that’s right, 'cause that’s whet I got! BTW, I said that he smoked Princes, drank coffee and lived in the green house ---
**Author:** ![merrily](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@merrily](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/merrily)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2005, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/einsteins-fish/315976/12 "2005-08-07T19:16:42Z")
I used Excel, and put in the house positions along the top, and the variable names down the left. Then I filled in the variables that I could (like Norwegian in the first house) based on the clues. I put the clues into Word so I could highlight them as they were addressed. This didn’t take me all the way, so I bolded those answers I had in Excel and put in all the possible answers in the other cells. Then I kept going down the list, which allowed me to eliminate some of the possibilities. Once a cell was down to one answer, that got bolded and taken out of other cells. This allowed me to get a solution that worked for all the clues. (I had one or two false starts, where what I think I did is eliminate the correct answer instead of the false answer by mistake. ) ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2005, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/einsteins-fish/315976/13 "2005-08-07T19:46:34Z")
My answer to. Exactly. Although I did ask you to wait till the deadline passed so no cookie for you! But oh well, we’re on the honor system now. I do a lot of logic problems from the pennypress and dell books so I made one of those grids. But in order to finish it out I had to draw each house with the attributes I had so that I could see how the “next to” clues worked. ---
**Author:** ![Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spatial_Rift_47)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2005, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/einsteins-fish/315976/14 "2005-08-07T19:47:40Z")
**JustAnotherGeek** : Yup, all the same as my answers! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Anastasaeon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Anastasaeon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anastasaeon)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2005, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/einsteins-fish/315976/15 "2005-08-07T20:00:48Z")
Yep, to all the spoiler boxes, that’s exactly what I got. Usually I have a short attention span (ADD) but everytime I was about to give up, I would figure out some detail, and get all excited again. It took me a while to get going, but once I did, it all started to fall into place. It made my brain ache. **Fern Forest** - I _did_ wonder about the house after I’d already assigned it to the leftmost position. I didn’t fret too much over it, though, because I find I’ll often complicate things more than they need to be. Sometimes the simplest answer _is_ the answer, so I just rolled with it… and it seems like it worked out, if the correct answer is the one everyone else got. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![ZebraShaSha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/eada6e/32.png) [@ZebraShaSha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZebraShaSha)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2005, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/einsteins-fish/315976/16 "2005-08-07T21:18:54Z")
I don’t know what is right, but I did not get that. When it came down to it, the Norwegian could not own cats because the person who owned cats lived next to the one who smoked Blends. The German lived next to the Norwegian, but the German smoked Princes. The Norwegian had the first house, so there was only one neighbor. Therefore, since the Dane had birds, the German had horses, the Brit had cats, and the Swede had dogs, the Norwegian had the fish. I’ll offer any more support, as needed, but I am pretty sure this is right. I used six spread sheets: five with the nationalities as rows and house color, drink, cigar, pet, and position as columns and one extra devoted to colors v. position. (Honestly, I just know too much about these people now.) ---
**Author:** ![ZebraShaSha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/eada6e/32.png) [@ZebraShaSha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZebraShaSha)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2005, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/einsteins-fish/315976/17 "2005-08-07T21:27:41Z")
> [@ZebraShaSha](#): > > I don’t know what is right, but I did not get that. When it came down to it, the Norwegian could not own cats because the person who owned cats lived next to the one who smoked Blends. The German lived next to the Norwegian, but the German smoked Princes. The Norwegian had the first house, so there was only one neighbor. > > Therefore, since the Dane had birds, the German had horses, the Brit had cats, and the Swede had dogs, the Norwegian had the fish. > > I’ll offer any more support, as needed, but I am pretty sure this is right. I used six spread sheets: five with the nationalities as rows and house color, drink, cigar, pet, and position as columns and one extra devoted to colors v. position. > > (Honestly, I just know too much about these people now.) Nevermind, you cats are correct. I now see the error of my ways in my true posting fashion. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2005, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/einsteins-fish/315976/18 "2005-08-08T01:23:27Z")
I got the same answers that **Spatial Rift 47** and **JustAnotherGeek** got. It took me about an hour. I did it all in Excel, and I included the .xls file with my answer, in case they want to separate the geeks from the googlers. ---
**Author:** ![Anastasaeon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Anastasaeon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anastasaeon)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2005, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/einsteins-fish/315976/19 "2005-08-08T01:51:50Z")
Damn. It sounds easier to just use Excel. I always take the long road. :smack: ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spatial_Rift_47)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2005, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/einsteins-fish/315976/20 "2005-08-08T04:24:47Z")
Honestly, it would have taken me longer to figure out how to properly use Excel to solve this sort of problem than it actually took me to just solve it on paper. I mean, I’m familiar with the basics of Excel, but just the basics. Same reason I didn’t use one of them newfangled logic rubrics. I was first taught those in elementary school, but it’s been so long since I used them that trying to construct one as complicated as one for this problem would have to be would have been more difficult and frustrating than the problem itself. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/einsteins-fish/315976.md?page=2)