Friday, December 2, 2005

Zebra Problem -- No one has the Zebra

The Einstien Riddle is actually a variant (presumably) of the Zebra Problem published by Readers Digest circa 1962, see this (Scroll down) nice page by Rick Archer. Several others have attributed this to Lewis Carroll which seems plausible. The amount of chatter about it seems to be recent, however, giving the most plausibility to the readers digest theory (personal testimony does have it's merits).

Statements

1 5 different colored houses on a street, with five men of different nationalities living in them. Each man has a different profession. Each man likes a different drink. Each man has a different pet animal.
2 The Englishman lives in the red house.
3 The Spaniard has a dog.
4 The Japanese is a painter.
5 The Italian drinks tea.
6 The Norwegian lives in the first house on the left.
7 The owner of the green house drinks coffee.
8 The green house is on the right of the white house.
9 The sculptor breeds snails.
10 The diplomat lives in the yellow house.
11 They drink milk in the middle house.
12 The Norwegian lives next door to the blue house.
13 The violinist drinks fruit juice.
14 The fox is in the house next to the doctor's.
15 The horse is in the house next to the diplomat's.

The question? Who has the zebra and who drinks water ?

I believe the solution will be the same as the Einstein Riddle (see this).

Since zebra and the water are in the question only and not in the rules -- it is possible that the 5th animal is cranes -- and the fifth beverage is soda - and therefore no one has any fish, nor drinks any water. This doesn't constitute the answer, but determines that the answer is a set of possible solutions that includes no water drinker and no zebra owner, and no water drinker or no zebra owner.

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