eistein's riddle

[Ara.T.Howard]

this will keep you busy

Einstein wrote the following riddle. He said that 98% of the world could not
solve it.

There are 5 houses in 5 different colors in a row. In each house lives a
person with a different nationality. The 5 owners drink a certain type of
beverage, smoke a certain brand of cigar, and keep a certain pet. No owners
have the same pet, smoke the same brand of cigar, or drink the same
beverage. Other facts:

1. The Brit lives in the red house.
2. The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
3. The Dane drinks tea.
4. The green house is on the immediate left of the white house.
5. The green house`s owner drinks coffee.
6. The owner who smokes Pall Mall rears birds.
7. The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill.
8. The owner living in the center house drinks milk.
9. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
10. The owner who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats.
11. The owner who keeps the horse lives next to the one who smokes Dunhill.
12. The owner who smokes Bluemasters drinks beer.
13. The German smokes Prince.
14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
15. The owner who smokes Blends lives next to the one who drinks water.


The question is : WHO OWNS THE FISH?


-a
--

ATTN: please update your address books with address below!

===============================================================================
| EMAIL :: Ara [dot] T [dot] Howard [at] noaa [dot] gov
| PHONE :: 303.497.6469
| ADDRESS :: E/GC2 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80305-3328
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| NGDC :: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/
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| NOAA :: http://www.noaa.gov/
| US DOC :: http://www.commerce.gov/
|
| The difference between art and science is that science is what we
| understand well enough to explain to a computer.
| Art is everything else.
| -- Donald Knuth, "Discover"
|
| /bin/sh -c 'for l in ruby perl;do $l -e "print \"\x3a\x2d\x29\x0a\"";done'
===============================================================================

 

[Nikolai Weibull]

Einstein wrote the following riddle. He said that 98% of the world could not
solve it.
[conditions]

The question is : WHO OWNS THE FISH?

Sorry to spoil it, but it's the German. Hooray, I'm one of the 2% who
can solve it. Thank god I have such a high IQ that this doesn't inflate
my self-esteem any further ;-)
nikolai

P.S.
This can be solved using finite-state transducers, see
http://www.xrce.xerox.com/competencies/content-analysis/fsCompiler/fsexamples.html#Einstein1
for a solution. I'm not saying that I had actually read this article
before trying out the puzzle, but I have, so that's why I know ;-)
D.S.

 

[Pit Capitain]

Here's the output of a Ruby program I wrote a couple of months ago to solve
puzzles like this:

cr cg cw cy cb nb ns nd nn ng bt bc bm bb bw zp zd zb zm zc pd pb pc ph pf
+== == == == ==+== == == == ==+== == == == ==+== == == == ==+== == == == ==+
i1|-- -- -- ++ --|-- -- -- ++ --|-- -- -- -- ++|-- ++ -- -- --|-- -- ++ -- --|
i2|-- -- -- -- ++|-- -- ++ -- --|++ -- -- -- --|-- -- ++ -- --|-- -- -- ++ --|
i3|++ -- -- -- --|++ -- -- -- --|-- -- ++ -- --|++ -- -- -- --|-- ++ -- -- --|
i4|-- ++ -- -- --|-- -- -- -- ++|-- ++ -- -- --|-- -- -- -- ++|-- -- -- -- ++|
i5|-- -- ++ -- --|-- ++ -- -- --|-- -- -- ++ --|-- -- -- ++ --|++ -- -- -- --|
+== == == == ==+== == == == ==+== == == == ==+== == == == ==+== == == == ==+
pd|-- -- ++ -- --|-- ++ -- -- --|-- -- -- ++ --|-- -- -- ++ --|
pb|++ -- -- -- --|++ -- -- -- --|-- -- ++ -- --|++ -- -- -- --|
pc|-- -- -- ++ --|-- -- -- ++ --|-- -- -- -- ++|-- ++ -- -- --|
ph|-- -- -- -- ++|-- -- ++ -- --|++ -- -- -- --|-- -- ++ -- --|
pf|-- ++ -- -- --|-- -- -- -- ++|-- ++ -- -- --|-- -- -- -- ++|
+== == == == ==+== == == == ==+== == == == ==+== == == == ==+
zp|++ -- -- -- --|++ -- -- -- --|-- -- ++ -- --|
zd|-- -- -- ++ --|-- -- -- ++ --|-- -- -- -- ++|
zb|-- -- -- -- ++|-- -- ++ -- --|++ -- -- -- --|
zm|-- -- ++ -- --|-- ++ -- -- --|-- -- -- ++ --|
zc|-- ++ -- -- --|-- -- -- -- ++|-- ++ -- -- --|
+== == == == ==+== == == == ==+== == == == ==+
bt|-- -- -- -- ++|-- -- ++ -- --|
bc|-- ++ -- -- --|-- -- -- -- ++|
bm|++ -- -- -- --|++ -- -- -- --|
bb|-- -- ++ -- --|-- ++ -- -- --|
bw|-- -- -- ++ --|-- -- -- ++ --|
+== == == == ==+== == == == ==+
nb|++ -- -- -- --|
ns|-- -- ++ -- --|
nd|-- -- -- -- ++|
nn|-- -- -- ++ --|
ng|-- ++ -- -- --|
+== == == == ==+

Legend:
i1 house 1 cr red nb Brit bt tea zp Pall Mall pd dogs
i2 house 2 cg green ns Swede bc coffee zd Dunhill pb birds
i3 house 3 cw white nd Dane bm milk zb Blends pc cats
i4 house 4 cy yellow nn Norwegian bb beer zm Bluemasters ph horse
i5 house 5 cb blue ng German bw water zc Prince pf fish

Regards,
Pit

 

[Avi Bryant]

Hardly efficient (in fact I haven't yet run it through to completion),
but since we were recently talking about amb:
---
$colors = ["red", "white", "yellow", "blue", "green"]
$nationalities = ["Brit", "Swede", "Dane", "Norwegian", "German"]
$beverages = ["tea", "coffee", "milk", "beer", "water"]
$cigars = ["Pall Mall", "Blends", "Dunhill", "Prince", "Bluemasters"]
$pets = ["dogs", "birds", "cats", "horse", "fish"]

class House
attr_reader :color, :nationality, :beverage, :cigar, et

def initialize
@color = $amb.one_of($colors)
@nationality = $amb.one_of($nationalities)
@beverage = $amb.one_of($beverages)
@cigar = $amb.one_of($cigars)
@pet = $amb.one_of($pets)
end
end

def find(property, value)
$houses.detect{|h| h.send(property) == value} || $amb.fail
end

def color(s) findcolor, s) end
def nationality(s) findnationality, s) end
def beverage(s) findbeverage, s) end
def cigar(s) findcigar, s) end
def pet(s) findpet, s) end

def next_door(h1, h2)
($houses.index(h1) - $houses.index(h2)).abs == 1
end

$amb = Amb.new
$houses = (1..5).collect{House.new}

#fact 1
$amb.assert(nationality("Brit").color == "red")
#fact 2
$amb.assert(nationality("Swede").pet == "dogs")
#fact 3
$amb.assert(nationality("Dane").beverage == "tea")
#fact 4
$amb.assert(houses.index(color("white")) -
houses.index(color("green")) == 1)
#fact 5
$amb.assert(color("green").beverage == "coffee")
#fact 6
$amb.assert(cigar("Pall Mall").pet == "birds")
#fact 7
$amb.assert(color("yellow").cigar == "Dunhill")
#fact 8
$amb.assert(houses[2].beverage == "milk")
#fact 9
$amb.assert(houses[0].nationality == "Norwegian")
#fact 10
$amb.assert(next_door(cigar("Blends"), pet("cats")))
#fact 11
$amb.assert(next_door(cigar("Dunhill"), pet("horse")))
#fact 12
$amb.assert(cigar("Bluemasters").beverage == "beer")
#fact 13
$amb.assert(nationality("German").cigar == "Prince")
#fact 14
$amb.assert(next_door(nationality("Norwegian"), color("blue")))
#fact 15
$amb.assert(next_door(cigar("Blends"), beverage("water")))

#No owners have the same pet, smoke the same brand of cigar
#or drink the same beverage.
$amb.assert(houses.collect{|h| h.color}.uniq.size == 5)
$amb.assert(houses.collect{|h| h.nationality}.uniq.size == 5)
$amb.assert(houses.collect{|h| h.beverage}.uniq.size == 5)
$amb.assert(houses.collect{|h| h.cigar}.uniq.size == 5)
$amb.assert(houses.collect{|h| h.pet}.uniq.size == 5)

puts "The " + pet("fish").nationality + " owns the fish"

 

[Niklas Frykholm]

Einstein wrote the following riddle. He said that 98% of the world could not

solve it.

There are 5 houses in 5 different colors in a row. In each house lives a
person with a different nationality. The 5 owners drink a certain type of
beverage, smoke a certain brand of cigar, and keep a certain pet. No owners
have the same pet, smoke the same brand of cigar, or drink the same
beverage. Other facts:

[... riddle snipped]

For an interesting way of solving this problem, try this -- draw the
five lots on a piece of paper. Get a set of differently colored lego
bricks. Use a different color for each property (e.g. red for
nationality, blue for house color, white for beverage, ...) and mark the
bricks "brit", "swede", "red, "dog", etc...

For each fact in the list -- try to express it with the bricks, for example:

1. The Brit lives in the red house.

=> Snap together the bricks for "brit" and "red"

4. The green house is on the immediate left of the white house.

=> Put the brick for "green" to the left of the brick for "white".

8. The owner living in the center house drinks milk.

=> Put the brick for "milk" on the center lot that you have drawn.

This demonstrates how amazingly much simpler a problem can become when
you have the right cognitive tools. Kind of like programming in ruby.
(To get back on topic

// Niklas

 

[Enrique Meza]

Very interesting code... but hangup forever...

/einstein.rb:24:in `find': Interrupt from ./einstein.rb:24:in
`detect'
from ./einstein.rb:24:in `each'
from ./einstein.rb:24:in `detect'
from ./einstein.rb:24:in `find'
from ./einstein.rb:28:in `nationality'
from ./einstein.rb:40

If i runnit with irb:


einstein.rb(main):061:0> puts "The " + pet("fish").nationality + " owns
the fish"
The Brit owns the fish
=> nil

But seems wrong answer...

I think in 'detect' line is the bug...


----------- CODE ---------------------------------------

#!/usr/local/bin/ruby

class Amb
def initialize
@failureContinuation = proc{raise "Amb goal tree exhausted"}
end

def fail
@failureContinuation.call(nil)
end

def assert(bool)
fail unless bool
end

def choose(procArray)
kPrev = @failureContinuation
callcc do |kEntry|
procArray.each do |p|
callcc do |kNext|
@failureContinuation = proc do |v|
@failureContinuation = kPrev
kNext.call(v)
end
kEntry.call(p.call)
end
end
kPrev.call(nil)
end
end

def one_of(enumerable)
choose(enumerable.collect{|ea| proc{ea}})
end

def maybe
one_of([true, false])
end
end

$colors = ["red", "white", "yellow", "blue", "green"]
$nationalities = ["Brit", "Swede", "Dane", "Norwegian", "German"]
$beverages = ["tea", "coffee", "milk", "beer", "water"]
$cigars = ["Pall Mall", "Blends", "Dunhill", "Prince", "Bluemasters"]
$pets = ["dogs", "birds", "cats", "horse", "fish"]

class House
attr_reader :color, :nationality, :beverage, :cigar, et

def initialize
@color = $amb.one_of($colors)
@nationality = $amb.one_of($nationalities)
@beverage = $amb.one_of($beverages)
@cigar = $amb.one_of($cigars)
@pet = $amb.one_of($pets)
end
end

def find(property, value)
$houses.detect{|h| h.send(property) == value} || $amb.fail
end

def color(s) findcolor, s) end
def nationality(s) findnationality, s) end
def beverage(s) findbeverage, s) end
def cigar(s) findcigar, s) end
def pet(s) findpet, s) end

def next_door(h1, h2)
($houses.index(h1) - $houses.index(h2)).abs == 1
end

$amb = Amb.new
$houses = (1..5).collect{House.new}
puts "Finding.... red..\n"
$amb.assert(nationality("Brit").color == "red")
#fact 2
puts "Finding.... dogs..\n"
$amb.assert(nationality("Swede").pet == "dogs")
#fact 3
$amb.assert(nationality("Dane").beverage == "tea")
#fact 4
$amb.assert(houses.index(color("white")) -
houses.index(color("green")) == 1)
#fact 5
$amb.assert(color("green").beverage == "coffee")
#fact 6
$amb.assert(cigar("Pall Mall").pet == "birds")
#fact 7
$amb.assert(color("yellow").cigar == "Dunhill")
#fact 8
$amb.assert(houses[2].beverage == "milk")
#fact 9
$amb.assert(houses[0].nationality == "Norwegian")
#fact 10
$amb.assert(next_door(cigar("Blends"), pet("cats")))
#fact 11
$amb.assert(next_door(cigar("Dunhill"), pet("horse")))
#fact 12
$amb.assert(cigar("Bluemasters").beverage == "beer")
#fact 13
$amb.assert(nationality("German").cigar == "Prince")
#fact 14
$amb.assert(next_door(nationality("Norwegian"), color("blue")))
#fact 15
$amb.assert(next_door(cigar("Blends"), beverage("water")))
puts "All 15 facts...\n"

Regards,

 

[Daniel Carrera]

I ran it and it crashed on me after 4 days of hard computation (on a
double PII 400Mhz)!

Wouldn't it be faster to do it with a pencil and paper? It took me less
than 10 minutes.

 

[Guillaume Marcais]

Agreed. On that particular example I was more interested by the amb
class and how it works. I thought it led to an elegant way to express
and solve problems. But way too slow to be of any use for not so big
problems.

Guillaume.

Le 10 févr. 04, à 19:20, Daniel Carrera a écrit :