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Who owns the Zebra?

Who owns the Zebra?

PraveenKumar Purushothaman

@praveenkumar-66Ze92 • Oct 26, 2024

Oct 26, 2024

1.5K

On an odd little street in the town of Somewhere, there are five house in a row. Each house is a different colour, each is inhabited by a woman of different nationality, and the owner of the houses also have their differences: each owner has a different pet, prefers a different drink and works in a different profession. A detective, charged with the task of discovering who drinks water and who owns the Zebra, gathered the following information, itemized for your convenience:

The Englishwoman lives in the red house.
The Spaniard owns a dog.
Coffee is drunk in the green house
The Ukrainian drinks tea.
The green house is immediately to the right of the Ivory house.
The engineer owns the snail.
The diplomat lives in the yellow house.
Milk is drunk in the middle house.
The Norwegian lives in the first house on the left.
The doctor lives next to the owner of the fox.
The diplomat lives next to the owner of the horse.
The teacher drinks orange juice.
The carpenter is Japanese.
The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.

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Kaustubh Katdare

@thebigk • Dec 18, 2011

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

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PraveenKumar Purushothaman

@praveenkumar-66Ze92 • Dec 18, 2011

The_Big_KI think that is called the 'Einstein's Puzzle', am I right?
Its a kind of detective puzzle! 😀 Answer? Don't google please... 😀

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Dancer_Engineer

@dancer-engineer-EJ8rGI • Dec 19, 2011

I tried solving the 14 pointers in the following order:
9, 14, 8 <sure points>
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! 😭

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Gandalf

@gandalf-RPhbu3 • Dec 19, 2011

Dancer_EngineerI tried solving the 14 pointers in the following order:
9, 14, 8 <sure points>
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.

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Dancer_Engineer

@dancer-engineer-EJ8rGI • Dec 19, 2011

GandalfContradictory 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.

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PraveenKumar Purushothaman

@praveenkumar-66Ze92 • Dec 19, 2011

Shall I say the answer?

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Dancer_Engineer

@dancer-engineer-EJ8rGI • Dec 19, 2011

No don't say now.

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PraveenKumar Purushothaman

@praveenkumar-66Ze92 • Dec 19, 2011

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

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Dancer_Engineer

@dancer-engineer-EJ8rGI • Dec 19, 2011

Praveen-KumarOKay... You have kind of going in the right way... 😀
Yes I'm on the right solution.
Ok, you sure there is no data missing?

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simplycoder

@simplycoder-NsBEdD • Dec 20, 2011

@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.

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Dancer_Engineer

@dancer-engineer-EJ8rGI • Dec 20, 2011

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

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PraveenKumar Purushothaman

@praveenkumar-66Ze92 • Dec 20, 2011

Waiting for your answers guys! 😀

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Dancer_Engineer

@dancer-engineer-EJ8rGI • Dec 20, 2011

The Diplomat?

Please please please say YES! 😖

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PraveenKumar Purushothaman

@praveenkumar-66Ze92 • Dec 20, 2011

Er... Nopes! 😔

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Dancer_Engineer

@dancer-engineer-EJ8rGI • Dec 20, 2011

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! 😡

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simplycoder

@simplycoder-NsBEdD • Dec 20, 2011

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-#

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Dancer_Engineer

@dancer-engineer-EJ8rGI • Dec 20, 2011

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. 😕

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simplycoder

@simplycoder-NsBEdD • Dec 20, 2011

@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.

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Dancer_Engineer

@dancer-engineer-EJ8rGI • Dec 20, 2011

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 😳

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PraveenKumar Purushothaman

@praveenkumar-66Ze92 • Dec 20, 2011

simplycoderI 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! 😔

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PraveenKumar Purushothaman

@praveenkumar-66Ze92 • Dec 20, 2011

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

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PraveenKumar Purushothaman

@praveenkumar-66Ze92 • Dec 20, 2011

The_Big_KI think that is called the 'Einstein's Puzzle', am I right?
Yeah man!!! Just got it... Its the Einstein's Puzzle!!! 😁

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Kaustubh Katdare

@thebigk • Dec 20, 2011

Praveen-KumarYeah man!!! Just got it... Its the Einstein's Puzzle!!! 😁
Ha! See! The real genius lies in knowing where to find the answer 😉

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PraveenKumar Purushothaman

@praveenkumar-66Ze92 • Dec 20, 2011

The_Big_KHa! See! The real genius lies in knowing where to find the answer 😉
That's why you are a Good Administrator! 😁

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simplycoder

@simplycoder-NsBEdD • Dec 22, 2011

@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.

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PraveenKumar Purushothaman

@praveenkumar-66Ze92 • Dec 22, 2011

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?

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simplycoder

@simplycoder-NsBEdD • Dec 23, 2011

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

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PraveenKumar Purushothaman

@praveenkumar-66Ze92 • Dec 23, 2011

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?

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simplycoder

@simplycoder-NsBEdD • Dec 23, 2011

@Praveen: no not at all.

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PraveenKumar Purushothaman

@praveenkumar-66Ze92 • Dec 23, 2011

simplycoder@Praveen: no not at all.
Gimme some idea, I'll test drive! 😁

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simplycoder

@simplycoder-NsBEdD • Dec 23, 2011

@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..😔 )

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PraveenKumar Purushothaman

@praveenkumar-66Ze92 • Dec 23, 2011

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! 😀

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simplycoder

@simplycoder-NsBEdD • Dec 23, 2011

@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.

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PraveenKumar Purushothaman

@praveenkumar-66Ze92 • Dec 23, 2011

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?

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simplycoder

@simplycoder-NsBEdD • Dec 23, 2011

@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.

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PraveenKumar Purushothaman

@praveenkumar-66Ze92 • Dec 23, 2011

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... 😔

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simplycoder

@simplycoder-NsBEdD • Dec 23, 2011

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

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Dancer_Engineer

@dancer-engineer-EJ8rGI • Dec 23, 2011

Will this code solve problems of similar kinds?

I had come across another similar problem some time back.

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simplycoder

@simplycoder-NsBEdD • Dec 23, 2011

@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.

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Dancer_Engineer

@dancer-engineer-EJ8rGI • Dec 23, 2011

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.

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simplycoder

@simplycoder-NsBEdD • Dec 23, 2011

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

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Dancer_Engineer

@dancer-engineer-EJ8rGI • Dec 23, 2011

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.

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simplycoder

@simplycoder-NsBEdD • Dec 23, 2011

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

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Dancer_Engineer

@dancer-engineer-EJ8rGI • Dec 23, 2011

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. 😀

simplycoderMoreover it feels pretty good after the computer shows the solution.. 😀
Yes, I agree! 👍

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simplycoder

@simplycoder-NsBEdD • Dec 23, 2011

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.

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Dancer_Engineer

@dancer-engineer-EJ8rGI • Dec 23, 2011

simplycoderBut 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. 😔

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simplycoder

@simplycoder-NsBEdD • Dec 23, 2011

@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.

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Dancer_Engineer

@dancer-engineer-EJ8rGI • Dec 23, 2011

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 😁

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PraveenKumar Purushothaman

@praveenkumar-66Ze92 • Dec 23, 2011

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

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