Who owns the Zebra?

Replies

• 

  Kaustubh Katdare

  I think that is called the 'Einstein's Puzzle', am I right?
• 

  PraveenKumar Purushothaman

  The_Big_K

  I think that is called the 'Einstein's Puzzle', am I right?

  Its a kind of detective puzzle! 😀 Answer? Don't google please... 😀
• 

  Dancer_Engineer

  I tried solving the 14 pointers in the following order:
  9, 14, 8
  took a guess on 5th one and then followed the order 3, 1, 7, 11, 6.
  Stuck here.. so took another guess on 13th point.
  Stuck again!
  
  Give Up! 😭
• 

  Gandalf

  Dancer_Engineer

  I tried solving the 14 pointers in the following order:
  9, 14, 8
  took a guess on 5th one and then followed the order 3, 1, 7, 11, 6.
  Stuck here.. so took another guess on 13th point.
  Stuck again!
  
  Give Up! 😭

  Contradictory to your qoute you quit
  😛
  

  Never Quit Anything In Life - To Get Something That You Never Had, You Have To Do Something That You Never Did.

• 

  Dancer_Engineer

  Gandalf

  Contradictory to your qoute you quit
  😛

  
  Yeah, I sat with it the puzzle for quite a long time (2hrs :-(), and then I really really had to let it go 😔
  I had once solved a similar puzzle, I was sure to crack this one.
• 

  PraveenKumar Purushothaman

  Shall I say the answer?
• 

  Dancer_Engineer

  No don't say now.
• 

  PraveenKumar Purushothaman

  OKay... You have kind of going in the right way... 😀
• 

  Dancer_Engineer

  Praveen-Kumar

  OKay... You have kind of going in the right way... 😀

  Yes I'm on the right solution.
  Ok, you sure there is no data missing?
• 

  simplycoder

  @Dancer_Engineer, make a matrix type structure and fill in the boxes and eliminate the wrong choices with logic. Its slightly complex and you have to think atleast 2-3 steps ahead. I will wait for your reply before writing the full solution in steps.
• 

  Dancer_Engineer

  Oopss!
  I forgot about the Zebra. 😳
  Ok will post my answer (i.e if I get one) before the end of the day. 👍
• 

  PraveenKumar Purushothaman

  Waiting for your answers guys! 😀
• 

  Dancer_Engineer

  The Diplomat?
  
  Please please please say YES! 😖
• 

  PraveenKumar Purushothaman

  Er... Nopes! 😔
• 

  Dancer_Engineer

  NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! 😡
• 

  simplycoder

  I don't want to spoil fun so I am not posting here, but I have posted the solution for the same over here.
  #-Link-Snipped-#
• 

  Dancer_Engineer

  
  
  This is how I solved (the 3rd trial). Stuck at 11, then checked the other possibilities 2, 4, 6, 12, 13 and landed at Diplomat. 😕
• 

  simplycoder

  @Dancer Engineer: findout what diplomat can drink if in your previous post you wrote for water then I agree with your answer. then findout nationality,occupation,drink of second house which I think is not too complicated.
  Final effort will be where in house3,4,5 in which you have to try to assume things, (just two three steps ahead) and you would see that if you make wrong assumption, it will fail so go back and correct it, eliminate other choices. Finding zebra is more complicated than finding water.
• 

  Dancer_Engineer

  simplycoder

  @Dancer Engineer: findout what diplomat can drink if in your previous post you wrote for water then I agree with your answer. then findout nationality,occupation,drink of second house which I think is not too complicated.
  Final effort will be where in house3,4,5 in which you have to try to assume things, (just two three steps ahead) and you would see that if you make wrong assumption, it will fail so go back and correct it, eliminate other choices. Finding zebra is more complicated than finding water.

  
  
  Okay. I took both the person who drinks water and who owns the Zebra to be one.
  So I found out the Diplomat drinks water, so concluded he owns the Zebra.
  
  Oopss, I made a boo-boo 😳
• 

  PraveenKumar Purushothaman

  simplycoder

  I don't want to spoil fun so I am not posting here, but I have posted the solution for the same over here.
  #-Link-Snipped-#

  Still giving the link is like a spoiler! 😔
• 

  PraveenKumar Purushothaman

  Okay guys, shall I post the solution or still to decipher??? 😀 Simply coder is right! 😁
• 

  PraveenKumar Purushothaman

  The_Big_K

  I think that is called the 'Einstein's Puzzle', am I right?

  Yeah man!!! Just got it... Its the Einstein's Puzzle!!! 😁
• 

  Kaustubh Katdare

  Praveen-Kumar

  Yeah man!!! Just got it... Its the Einstein's Puzzle!!! 😁

  Ha! See! The real genius lies in knowing where to find the answer 😉
• 

  PraveenKumar Purushothaman

  The_Big_K

  Ha! See! The real genius lies in knowing where to find the answer 😉

  That's why you are a Good Administrator! 😁
• 

  simplycoder

  @All: I know that this is a logical puzzle and it would be a sad thing if we write a code for this to solve it.
  Did any one try to write a code for this for verification of answer?
  If not give it a try, its pretty simple and my program written in java, pops out solution in less than a second.
  Give it a try, its pretty straightforward.
• 

  PraveenKumar Purushothaman

  simplycoder

  @All: I know that this is a logical puzzle and it would be a sad thing if we write a code for this to solve it.
  Did any one try to write a code for this for verification of answer?
  If not give it a try, its pretty simple and my program written in java, pops out solution in less than a second.
  Give it a try, its pretty straightforward.

  Code in the sense? I don't get you?
• 

  simplycoder

  @Praveen: treat it as a problem in programing, and write code for it to print out who owns zebra and who drinks water.
• 

  PraveenKumar Purushothaman

  simplycoder

  @Praveen: treat it as a problem in programing, and write code for it to print out who owns zebra and who drinks water.

  Won't it be too complex?
• 

  simplycoder

  @Praveen: no not at all.
• 

  PraveenKumar Purushothaman

  simplycoder

  @Praveen: no not at all.

  Gimme some idea, I'll test drive! 😁
• 

  simplycoder

  @Praveen: The best way, is the way we solve it by paper and pencil. Some how realize this in data-structures and try the possiblities. Then use the machine power.
  Even a bad design should pop the answer in 10-15 mins.(which does beat me when I solved it by hand..😔 )
• 

  PraveenKumar Purushothaman

  simplycoder

  @Praveen: The best way, is the way we solve it by paper and pencil. Some how realize this in data-structures and try the possiblities. Then use the machine power.
  Even a bad design should pop the answer in 10-15 mins.(which does beat me when I solved it by hand..😔 )

  Well, solving by machines will be not more than a second or two! 😀
• 

  simplycoder

  @Praveen: its possible only if you design it that way. But then if you just layout the rules, its bound to take lot of time.
• 

  PraveenKumar Purushothaman

  simplycoder

  @Praveen: its possible only if you design it that way. But then if you just layout the rules, its bound to take lot of time.

  Yeah, if we are clear on the logic, how long does a machine need to process them? Just transistors and logic gates right?
• 

  simplycoder

  @Praveen: Yea you are correct, but its only possible if we are clear on the logic. Else we spend up writing highly inefficient code which will not be fast as we wish even if we use very fast machine,most of the work done by machine would be worth less and not required.
• 

  PraveenKumar Purushothaman

  simplycoder

  @Praveen: Yea you are correct, but its only possible if we are clear on the logic. Else we spend up writing highly inefficient code which will not be fast as we wish even if we use very fast machine,most of the work done by machine would be worth less and not required.

  I guess you are talking about scalability, in that case, yeah... 😔
• 

  simplycoder

  I was talking more on optimization. Hint in writing such program is avoiding impossible conditions which can be gatherd from the clues.
• 

  Dancer_Engineer

  Will this code solve problems of similar kinds?
  
  I had come across another similar problem some time back.
• 

  simplycoder

  @Dancer Engineer: It depends, I think such programs can solve any kind einstein puzzles or their derivatives but then we must be careful about clues, and more over the language.If I replace clues, I have to code them again in updated form. Say if norwegian lives in the last house in place of first house, then the riddle change, all I have to do is understand the clues and write them.
  
  I can explain better if you can post the puzzle you came across.
• 

  Dancer_Engineer

  simplycoder

  @Dancer Engineer: It depends, I think such programs can solve any kind einstein puzzles or their derivatives but then we must be careful about clues, and more over the language.If I replace clues, I have to code them again in updated form. Say if norwegian lives in the last house in place of first house, then the riddle change, all I have to do is understand the clues and write them.
  
  I can explain better if you can post the puzzle you came across.

  I had come across such a puzzle in a campus placement round. So I don't have the correct problem with the right clues.
  Though I had solved the problem, I don't know whether it was right or wrong.
• 

  simplycoder

  @Dancer_Engineer: KK. Well if you are from CS/IT or interested in CS/IT, give this a try.
• 

  Dancer_Engineer

  simplycoder

  @Dancer_Engineer: KK. Well if you are from CS/IT or interested in CS/IT, give this a try.

  Yeah, I'm from CS.
  
  But then a Code to such a puzzle!?
  Would it serve its purpose well?
  There could be changes in the clues, the order of the clues.
• 

  simplycoder

  @Dancer Engineer: You can always modify it.
  Moreover it feels pretty good after the computer shows the solution.. 😀
• 

  Dancer_Engineer

  Nope. A Good code should give you the required output with the same valid input (in any order).
  So, you'll have to code it for all possibilities. 😀
  
  

  simplycoder

  Moreover it feels pretty good after the computer shows the solution.. 😀

  Yes, I agree! 👍
• 

  simplycoder

  Changing of order wouldnt matter If I swap clue 1 and clue 5 it wouldnt make any difference. But if I the contents of puzzle change for example if coffee is drunk in blue house, then the puzzle itself changes, then we need to modify it.
• 

  Dancer_Engineer

  simplycoder

  But if I the contents of puzzle change for example if coffee is drunk in blue house, then the puzzle itself changes, then we need to modify it.

  Hmmm!
  So we will have to modify it everytime for minor changes too. 😔
• 

  simplycoder

  @DancerEngineer: yea thats a sad part, but I dont think that we can avoid this until we teach computer to analyze the english language, to interpret the clues. I think at my current skill level, I am too far from this. However some one might just enlighten us and if this is possible, then we can sit back and dictate terms to computer and bang,it will do (Something similar to VICKI from small wonder!) But I am happy that we havent yet really reached to this state of computing as then world will experience highlevel recession and unemployment.
• 

  Dancer_Engineer

  How about Natural Language Processing? ( #-Link-Snipped-# )
  
  

  simplycoder

  (Something similar to VICKI from small wonder!) But I am happy that we havent yet really reached to this state of computing as then world will experience highlevel recession and unemployment.

  VICKI 😁
• 

  PraveenKumar Purushothaman

  There's something called as VIKI too!!! Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence from I, Robot! 😁