# You sir, are no Einstein. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 22, 2000, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-sir-are-no-einstein/34126 "2000-09-22T12:55:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![thinksnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thinksnow/32/2849_2.png) [@thinksnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thinksnow)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2000, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-sir-are-no-einstein/34126/1 "2000-09-22T12:55:30Z")
Here’s a little quiz for you intellectual types (something to leave you with before I go): Supposedly, Einstein wrote this quite some time ago and the claim is that 98% of the World wouldn’t be able to figure it out. I think you Dopers can squeeze into that 2%. It should go w/out saying that if you’ve seen this before, let the others try their wits at it before y’all throw in the solution, otherwise, I’ll provide it when I get back. =-=-=-=-=-=-=- **NOTE** : the solution can be found using nothing but logic, there is never any need to _guess_ and the use of software is cheating. There are five houses in five different colors. In each house lives a person with a different nationality. These five owners drink a certain drink, smoke a certain brand of cigar/cigarette, and keep a certain pet. No owners have the same pet, cigar or drink preference. The question is — who owns the fish? Hints: [ul][li]The Brit lives in the red house.[/li][li]The Swede keeps a dog for a pet.[/li][li]The Dane drinks tea.[/li][li]The green house is on the left of the white house.[/li][li]The green house owner drinks coffee.[/li][li]The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds.[/li][li]The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill.[/li][li]The man living in the house right in the center drinks milk.[/li][li]The Norwegian lives in the first house.[/li][li]The man who smokes blends lives next to the one who keeps cats.[/li][li]The man who keeps horses lives next to the one who smokes Dunhill.[/li][li]The owner of a Bluemaster drinks beer.[/li][li]The German smokes Prince.[/li][li]The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.[/li][li]The man who smokes blend has a neighbor who drinks water.[/li][/ul] Have fun. ---
**Author:** ![Phobos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Phobos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phobos)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2000, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-sir-are-no-einstein/34126/2 "2000-09-22T13:12:06Z")
[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=33987](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=33987) ---
**Author:** ![thinksnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thinksnow/32/2849_2.png) [@thinksnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thinksnow)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2000, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-sir-are-no-einstein/34126/3 "2000-09-22T13:20:32Z")
Oh, now that’s just irritating. Sorry, folks, I guess I should have known y’all woulda done this before. **I sir, am no Einstein.** ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2000, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-sir-are-no-einstein/34126/4 "2000-09-22T13:30:34Z")
There are lots of problems of this sort out there (and the Einstein attribution is surely apocryphal). When I took the GRE, the analytical section had a bunch of these. Question: does this class of brain-teasers have a name? ---
**Author:** ![Delta-9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3be4f8/32.png) [@Delta-9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Delta-9)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2000, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-sir-are-no-einstein/34126/5 "2000-09-22T14:00:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RTFirefly \* > \*\*Question: does this class of brain-teasers have a name? \*\* All the puzzle books I’ve read just called them “logic problems”. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2000, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-sir-are-no-einstein/34126/6 "2000-09-22T14:11:43Z")
You’re missing a brand of cigarettes. Unless “blend” and “blends” are different. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2000, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-sir-are-no-einstein/34126/7 "2000-09-22T14:13:57Z")
Unless “owner of a Bluemaster” should be “smoker of Bluemaster”… ---
**Author:** ![Yue\_Han](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/eada6e/32.png) [@Yue\_Han](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yue_Han)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2000, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-sir-are-no-einstein/34126/8 "2000-09-22T14:40:46Z")
You know, I was in an honors class in elementary, and problems like these were our homework. We drew grids and filled in the boxes… it was fun. I used to make up my own and try to get other people to solve because I thought they were cool. Oh, I was a lonely little boy. –John ---
**Author:** ![SoMoMom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@SoMoMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SoMoMom)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2000, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-sir-are-no-einstein/34126/9 "2000-09-22T15:07:00Z")
Connor, I followed the trail of links and ended up at: [http://www.greylabyrinth.com/Puzzles/puzzle084.htm](http://www.greylabyrinth.com/Puzzles/puzzle084.htm) which does have all of the information presented correctly. thinksnow, I don’t mind you posting this. I didn’t play the first time. 🙂 I have a lot of trouble believing that 98% of the world couldn’t solve this though. I’m not that smart and I got it even with my two-year-old “helping” me. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2000, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-sir-are-no-einstein/34126/10 "2000-09-22T15:13:28Z")
It is a great puzzle, though. You do have to admit that. Anyone know where I can get more online? ---
**Author:** ![Iolanthe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7bcc69/32.png) [@Iolanthe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iolanthe)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2000, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-sir-are-no-einstein/34126/11 "2000-09-22T21:10:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Yue Han \* > \*\*You know, I was in an honors class in elementary, and problems like these were our homework. We drew grids and filled in the boxes… it was fun. > > I used to make up my own and try to get other people to solve because I thought they were cool. > > Oh, I was a lonely little boy. > > –John \*\* But you’re charming me now, John - I loved these in elementary school (still do.) RTFirefly, I’ve always called them “Logic Problems.” ---
**Author:** ![Gozu\_Tashoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7993a0/32.png) [@Gozu\_Tashoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu_Tashoya)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2000, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-sir-are-no-einstein/34126/12 "2000-09-23T01:05:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Connor \* > \*\*It is a great puzzle, though. You do have to admit that. Anyone know where I can get more online? \*\* Sorry if this isn’t _too_ helpful, but like Firefly said, the GREs have tons of these so, presumably, a good GRE prep site would probably have a few. Question is whether or not there are any good GRE prep sites online… ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2000, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-sir-are-no-einstein/34126/13 "2000-09-23T21:59:01Z")
For a slightly more difficult type of logic problem, you might want to try the books of Raymond Smullyan. He slowly introduces more and more difficult problems. ---
**Author:** ![slackergirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b38774/32.png) [@slackergirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slackergirl)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2000, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-sir-are-no-einstein/34126/14 "2000-09-23T22:06:33Z")
I don’t know about online resources, but Dell has a series of books titled “Logic Puzzles” (the puzzles themselves are much more creative than the title) that are available in the games sections of most generic bookstores. I have 4 of the books and they have 75 of these kinds of puzzles each. ---
**Author:** ![ladybug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/46a35a/32.png) [@ladybug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ladybug)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2000, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-sir-are-no-einstein/34126/15 "2000-09-23T22:48:45Z")
I’m having LSAT flashbacks now … ---
**Author:** ![Erroneous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71c47a/32.png) [@Erroneous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erroneous)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2000, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-sir-are-no-einstein/34126/16 "2000-09-24T06:38:55Z")
The **Norwegian** lives in a **yellow** house, drinks **water** , smokes **Dunhill** , and keeps **cats**. The **Dane** lives in a **blue** house, drinks **tea** , smokes **Blend** , and has **horses**. The **Brit** lives in a **red** house, drinks **milk** , smokes **Pall Mall** and keeps **birds**. The **Swede** lives in a **white** house, drinks **beer** , smokes **Blue Master** , and has a **dog**. The **German** lives in a **green** house, drinks **coffee** , smokes **Prince** , and keeps **an unknown fifth kind of animal** as a pet. The fish are never mentioned in the clues, and the question only asks “who owns fish?”, so I intend to stubbornly hang on to my answer that no one owns the fish. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2000, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-sir-are-no-einstein/34126/17 "2000-09-24T09:07:15Z")
You know, attributing this puzzle to Einstein is typical of a common sort of story. It’s as though people think that there’s such a small number of extremely smart people that any even mildly challenging little intellectual exercise must be due to one of them. The notion that this problem would require Einstein to invent it or only could be solved by a small proportion of people is absurd. Anybody can solve this problem in an afternoon just by exhausting over all the possible solutions. As a rule, if you hear of something being attributed to Einstein and you don’t have a citation for it in an encyclopedia or biography of Einstein, assume that it’s a false attribution.