The REAL IQ Riddle

L31mr0d

This is a riddle written by Einstein. If you can solve it you're in Einsteins league IQ wise, if you can't... well "I have a ball. [pulls one from his pocket] Perhaps you'd like to bounce it?"

I finally figured out why it seperates certain intellects. There is a point in it where you'll need to make the leap from A to C without seeing B (i.e. the eureka moment). I only realised this when some other friends doing the riddle all got stuck at the same point and couldn't pass it. Whereas myself and some other mensans didn't even notice it.

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.

complicit

solved it in about a half hour :cool: had to use about 10 post it notes . Im no einstein .

abetarrush

i give up

L31mr0d

Its a great riddle for that. It really does seperate intellects. As I find the people that get it, get it fast, and develop a method of working it out in about 5 minutes and usually have it done in under an hour at most. But the people who can't get it that fast, probably will never get it without help. Its like I said, most people will solve it to a point. But its the top 2% who will bypass that and complete it. Einstein really was a genius to have developed such a perfect riddle (not to mention something he wrote about his relatives)

Cake Fiend

It's obvious:

The one with the fish tank!

Tar.Aldarion

Ah, thought it was a fairly easy logical puzzle, but they're my thing.
I hope you know maths well people. Sigma ftw. :P

Btw, when it says a house is on the left of another, it means on the direct left, not anywhere left of it. If you use the anywhere left of it approach, there are multiple answers.

It is the best riddle I have seen probably, sweeeet. Einstein s-m-r-t. :P

hybal

managed it in about 2 and half hours. Didn't use any paper though:)

18AD

Not really a 12:30 thing. A good challenge none-the-less. Took me about 50 minutes

OSiriS

I wouldn't call it a riddle, and solving it won't match you with Einstein (if it was that complicated you would be lucky to find a single person on this forum who could solve it), but I found it an enjoyable puzzle first time round.

Doomspell

I love those type puzzels, It took a good bit of paper and a hell of a long time, well worth it though!

Feral Mutant

I spent ages preparing by listing all the colours, drinks, pets . . . etc and how they were linked then when I actually started it, I got it fine.

the german has the fish

Teg Veece

Excel is your friend for this one. If you just list out the catagories, house, colour etc. and start filling in the gird based on the clues you're given it only take a few min.

I went through the clues in this order:
8
9
14
4
5
1
7
11
2
3
13
12
15
6
10

At one stage alright I had 3 possible solutions but 2 of them ruled themselves out one or two clues later.


House Colour Nation Beverage Cigarette Pet
1 Yellow Norwegian Water Dunhill Cats
2 Blue Dane Tea Blends Horses
3 Red Brit Milk Pall Mall Birds
4 Green German Coffee Prince Fish
5 White Swede Beer BlueMaster Dog

Edit: Thanks for the spoiler advice, Tar.

Crucifix

Did that yonks ago and got it. Annoying puzzle though.

Tar.Aldarion

Teg Veece, edit it, the tags are [spoiler?][/spoiler?] No ?'s

Crash

Its just a bit more difficult logic puzzles, involving a slightly larger leap than normal.

Smellyirishman

Einstien wasn't smart enough to see Excel come and tear his little riddle to shreds! As others have said, doesn't really show how clever you are, and I would be surprised if only 2% could solve this.....unless of course my answer is incorrect along with the others who have posted the answer! :eek:

Also, no need to be good at maths.

Tar.Aldarion

Maths just makes it simple, if you are good at it that is.

Smellyirishman

True, but in such a small scale there is 0 mathematic skills required.

Sam Vimes

Teg Veece wrote:

Excel is your friend for this one. If you just list out the catagories, house, colour etc. and start filling in the gird based on the clues you're given it only take a few min.

I went through the clues in this order:
8
9
14
4
5
1
7
11
2
3
13
12
15
6
10

At one stage alright I had 3 possible solutions but 2 of them ruled themselves out one or two clues later.


House Colour Nation Beverage Cigarette Pet
1 Yellow Norwegian Water Dunhill Cats
2 Blue Dane Tea Blends Horses
3 Red Brit Milk Pall Mall Birds
4 Green German Coffee Prince Fish
5 White Swede Beer BlueMaster Dog

Edit: Thanks for the spoiler advice, Tar.

indeed

I remember doing those kind of puzzles a while back. Just means being systematic, non? I don't recall having had trouble anyway

Tar.Aldarion

It is, my younger brother did it in 5-10 mins, simple logic.

D

ego +1

mathias

Einstein ?? Mensans , Ha ! Dont make me laugh , you can buy magazines full of these every month , very popular on long haul flights and in hospitals.

I like puzzles like this , but the ridiculous storylines introducing some of em are just embarrassing.

Burning Eclipse

Spent half an hour last night at about 2 o' clock without having a clue.

I just did it there in <5 minutes... The light-bulb went off... Excellent puzzle!

Yook

I just looked at it and knew the answer....i'm a genius! My e-penis > your e-penis.

That pretty much summerises the posts. Ever notice how everyone on the internet is a genius...

Vodka Junkie

Yook wrote:

I just looked at it and knew the answer....i'm a genius! My e-penis > your e-penis.

That pretty much summerises the posts. Ever notice how everyone on the internet is a genius...

It's all some of us have. Don't try to take that away!

odhran

My dad gave me this puzzle about six years ago. He was a school principal and he used to give it to free classes to keep them quiet

L31mr0d

mathias wrote:

Einstein ?? Mensans , Ha ! Dont make me laugh , you can buy magazines full of these every month , very popular on long haul flights and in hospitals.

I like puzzles like this , but the ridiculous storylines introducing some of em are just embarrassing.

Hey i'm only going on what i've experienced and it is accepted as a test of your IQ, if you can complete it then you are in the top 2% of intelligent people in the world. Which is what Mensa is, a glorified IQ test to prove the same thing, oh and turn people pretentious (i've since cancelled my membership) so I was just stating that the two tests correlated from my experience.

I'm sure there have been people on here who have attempted the test and failed and just not posted to admit it, I mean why would they (epenis -1). Just because all the people who have posted have solved it means nothing. It just means we are all uber-smart.

Now lets all stand in a circle and pat each other on the back.

abelard

I'd be interested to know exactly at what stage people were getting stuck as you said. I got it out, but didn't noice any one part that would cause difficulty. I guess that's a good thing from my standpoint, but I'm still interested!

Inspector Gadget

mathias wrote:

you can buy magazines full of these every month, very popular on long haul flights and in hospitals.

I remember these from when I was a kid - as soon as I saw it, I started drawing a stepped diagonal grid to go at it (if you know what I mean). It took me so long to figure this one out, though, I'm definitely rusty - curse you, sudoku!!!

Gadget

Metacortex

I jsut got it. It took about 20mins.
I would be interested to know which part people usually get stuck on

Fuzzy_Dunlop

Aaah yeah i got it after about 35 minutes, i was gettin worried there for a while. The whole to the left of thing kinda threw me though

Evil_Bilbo

I got stuck for a good while on trying to figure out which clue to go for next (concentrate on the blends or the countries and drinks or what?) was writing all possibilities into a square on the grid and trying to cross em off - evenually got it though - its a bit of a tuffy!

wiggzie

just came across this, good puzzle. used my sudoku skills to solve...

Mellor

I think somebaody said that you may find it easier if you are good at maths because in general people who excel at maths often are uite good at logic and deduction, and not because you need maths to solve it.

Seen this before and never actually tried it. Might give it a go.

fasterkitten

it's straightforward enough but what is the point at which the lesser mortals become stuck?

Newaglish

There are two sticky parts that follow each other, where one, as the OP said, has to go from A to C without seeing B.

Just in case:

The first was when you needed to put the tea-drinking Dane and the Blue-Master-smoking beerhead into houses. Each of them will fit only into either the second or fifth houses. The important thing to note is that whichever way it goes, both of these houses' drink "slots" will be filled, leaving only the Norwegian's drink slot empty. The only remaining drink is water and so you can figure out the second house smokes blends and go from there.

The other case of this is similar, when German/prince and Swede/dogs will fit only into the fourth and fifth houses. Whatever way this turns out, the second house will be the only one left, and thus the only remaining point of refuge for Johnny Denmark.

This will only make sense if you did it exactly as I did... anybody?