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Einstein's Riddle


CrossCuT

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Farsight one

[quote name='CrossCuT' post='1396810' date='Oct 2 2007, 08:23 PM'][size=1]How so?
[/size][/quote]
sending a message so as to not give it away.

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[quote name='Farsight one' post='1396878' date='Oct 2 2007, 11:07 PM']sending a message so as to not give it away.[/quote]

Oooh I want to know the shortcuts too!
It took me half an hour...
I did get it right.

But I should be writing my three page paper in the Spanish language, on art theory and blah.... how fun...

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Farsight one

[quote name='Romans1513' post='1396882' date='Oct 2 2007, 10:15 PM']Oooh I want to know the shortcuts too!
It took me half an hour...
I did get it right.

But I should be writing my three page paper in the Spanish language, on art theory and blah.... how fun...[/quote]I don't know the shortcut myself, but I am beginning to highly suspect that this shortcut is to AN answer, but not THE answer.

Makes me think Einstein's prediction that 98% of people won't get it right might actually be fairly accurate... :topsy:

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Farsight one

Since no one else is posting, I'm going to answer it here.

IF the last pet is a fish, then it is the [spoiler]German[/spoiler] that has the fish. However, no where in the "instructions" does it say that it has to be a fish. It could be a chimp, or a rat, or whatever, so we can't really accurately answer the question.

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[size=1]I think you may be right Farsight.

The fact that so many people were solving it correctly made me think "So why would Einstein say that 98% of the population would not be able to solve it?"
So when you started to explain your theory to me, I became more and more inclined to believe that the typical answer isnt neccisarily the right one.

But he set us all up for the big gag!
First he challenged us by saying that only 98% could solve it so we HAD to find out if we were part of the top elite,
and then to further encourage our incorrect answeres, he gave us ALL the helps we needed to run the wrong way.

So it is possible all the clues are useless; merely grease for the downhill slide.

But he DID leave one hint....thought he mention all the information we needed, he NEVER mention the fish in the set of "clues".
So therefore how do we know that someone HAS to own the fish?
:idontknow:


If that is all true, I am not one of the 98% :sadder:
[/size]

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Wikipedia says there's no proof Einstein came up with the riddle (it's also known as the Zebra riddle, with a Zebra rather than a fish), and that the answer is, indeed, the one all the clues point to. If Einstein never actually said 98% of the world wouldn't be able to solve it, then it's clearly that... the question itself is a clue which indicates that at least one of them has the zebra (or the fish)

However, IF Einstein really did say that, I imagine his idea of the telling of this riddle was quite different. In his day, there was no internet/computers... He probably imagined this riddle as a parlor trick at parties, which would be told verbally, and which people wouldn't necessarily have a pen/paper to work out their answer.

So if you could read the riddle only once, and not go back to it to re-look over the clues, and not write anything down, and get it within the time that a riddle would generally be allotted at a party (I imagine, unless it was a really geeky party, a riddle/parlor trick wouldn't be allotted more than 5-10 minutes, though it might be possible that someone is alowed to think it over during the whole course of the party and shout out that they had solved it by the end of the party), THEN, and only then, could you be considered part of the 2%.

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[quote]However, no where in the "instructions" does it say that it has to be a fish.[/quote]

I remember realizing that, and thinking it might be right, but then I forgot and did the puzzle because I love this type of puzzle. lol

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homeschoolmom

[quote name='Aloysius' post='1397690' date='Oct 4 2007, 08:42 PM']Wikipedia says there's no proof Einstein came up with the riddle (it's also known as the Zebra riddle, with a Zebra rather than a fish), and that the answer is, indeed, the one all the clues point to. If Einstein never actually said 98% of the world wouldn't be able to solve it, then it's clearly that... the question itself is a clue which indicates that at least one of them has the zebra (or the fish)

However, IF Einstein really did say that, I imagine his idea of the telling of this riddle was quite different. In his day, there was no internet/computers... He probably imagined this riddle as a parlor trick at parties, which would be told verbally, and which people wouldn't necessarily have a pen/paper to work out their answer.

So if you could read the riddle only once, and not go back to it to re-look over the clues, and not write anything down, and get it within the time that a riddle would generally be allotted at a party (I imagine, unless it was a really geeky party, a riddle/parlor trick wouldn't be allotted more than 5-10 minutes, though it might be possible that someone is alowed to think it over during the whole course of the party and shout out that they had solved it by the end of the party), THEN, and only then, could you be considered part of the 2%.[/quote]
Yeah, I'm not buying that with paper and pencil only 2% of the population could get this. It has to be more more like what Al said here...

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let_go_let_God

[quote name='prose' post='1396722' date='Oct 2 2007, 04:09 PM']1/2 Czech...

Then

1/4 native american
1/4 scottish
1/4 Irish
1/4 french[/quote]

Umm...

That adds up to 1 and 1/2

God bless-
LGLG

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[quote name='abercius24' post='1401100' date='Oct 12 2007, 12:38 AM']Have you all considered that the "first house" could be the first on the right OR the first on the left? :shock:[/quote]

yeah! but i chose to ignore that since we tend to count from left to right since we (including Germans and Austrians) read from left to right. But there's nothing saying that he couldn't have made it tricky by counting from right to left.

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[quote name='scardella' post='1401360' date='Oct 12 2007, 04:08 PM']yeah! but i chose to ignore that since we tend to count from left to right since we (including Germans and Austrians) read from left to right. But there's nothing saying that he couldn't have made it tricky by counting from right to left.[/quote]

As brilliant as Einstein is, he made sure it worked both ways! I found that to be quite funny!

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