[NT] Riddles!

[The Decline]

I really enjoyed working through this logic puzzle recently, and I rediscovered how much I used to like these things. Post riddles or puzzles you think would tickle an NT brain! Here's a version of "Einstein's Riddle":

- There are five houses next to each other on a street, painted five different colors.
- A man of a different nationality lives in each house.
- The five home owners each drink a different beverage, play a different sport and keep a different pet.


Einstein's riddle is simply this: Who owns the fish?


The clues:


1. The Briton lives in the red house.

2. The Swede keeps dogs as pets.

3. The Dane drinks tea.

4. The green house is next to, and on the left of the white house.

5. The owner of the green house drinks coffee.

6. The man who plays football rears birds.

7. The owner of the yellow house plays baseball.

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

9. The Norwegian lives in the first house on the left.

10. The man who plays volleyball lives next to the man who keeps cats.

11. The man who keeps horses lives next to the man who plays baseball.

12. The man who plays tennis drinks beer.

13. The German plays hockey.

14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.

15. The man who plays volleyball lives next to the man who drinks water.



Oh, and if you wish to declare your answer (since we don't have a spoiler tag), please put it into a url or something like this. To do this, use this code:
[ url="thisistheanswer" ]like this[ /url ], but obviously you'd omit the spaces.

AND NO GOOGLE CHEATING

edit: Here's a hint of how to approach this puzzle: hint

 

[Matthew_Z]

By "9. The Norwegian lives in the first house." does it mean he lives in the house farthest left?

 

[The Decline]

Ah yes, I wondered that as well at first, and I should've changed it (done). Farthest left.

 

[phthalocyanine]

i think i've got it. [spoilerz]

 

[Matthew_Z]

My answer to Einstein's riddle is in invisible font below this line of text.

Assuming one the the five owns a fish, it belongs to the German

 

[Matthew_Z]

Look for alternate interpretations in the riddle? What does keeper imply? Does it imply ownership or some sort of custodian relationship? Are owner and keeper two distinct relations? Does green house mean green as in the color green or green house in the botanical sense? Does White House mean the color white or 1600 Pennsylvania ave. What could red house mean?

It's a pure logic puzzle, not one solved through finding small ambiguous things in the text.

 

[The Decline]

LostInNerSpace, I'm afraid that the only clues you will need to solve the riddle are already provided, with no outside inferences necessary. Deductive reasoning, my dear Watson, it's elementary!

 

[Bougal]

I sent my answer to your reputation. Am I correct?

(Now that I look at other's answers, I have the same exact thing)

 

[LostInNerSpace]

This approach does not search for ambiguities. It is a systematic search for a solution. How do you even know it's a pure logic problem? How were you able to make that assumption? Presumably because you have seen the problem before. It was stated as being a riddle.

How exactly would you go about solving such a pure logic problem? Set theory? You are still looking for the same relations. Set theory is just a formal representation/framework. It is a problem solving approach.

 

[Matthew_Z]

How do you even know it's a pure logic problem?

I asked for clarification via PM with the OP.

 

[The Decline]

How do you even know it's a pure logic problem? How were you able to make that assumption? Presumably because you have seen the problem before. It was stated as being a riddle.

Actually, if you read my first post, you will find that it's called "Einstein's Riddle", yet I only referred to it as a "logic puzzle".

Though there is one fatal flaw to this story: it was never declared that the unknown pet in the last deduction is a fish!

Nonetheless, these are logic puzzles, and none should have trick answers, or unwarranted assumptions. Has no one done these before? Here's another classic:

A farmer has a fox, goose and a bag of grain, and one boat to cross a stream, which is only big enough to take one of the three across with him at a time. If left alone together, the fox would eat the goose and the goose would eat the grain. How can the farmer get all three across the stream?

 

[Spamtar]

A farmer has a fox, goose and a bag of grain, and one boat to cross a stream, which is only big enough to take one of the three across with him at a time. If left alone together, the fox would eat the goose and the goose would eat the grain. How can the farmer get all three across the stream?

got correct answer but errased

 

[Spamtar]

Here is one I have two American coins in my hand that equal 35 cents and one of them is not a quarter. What are they?

 

[The Decline]

Hey hey, hide your answers please.

Answer to yours: one is not a quarter, it's a dime. the other IS a quarter. tricky semantics, otherwise there's no answer

Here's a word riddle, if the crowd so pleases:

My feet are two, or three, or four.
I may move, but not on my own power.
My engine is heavier than me.
In some areas I am barely seen,
in some areas there are more of me,
than there are engines for me.

What am I?

 

[The Grand Chameleon]

Here is one I have two American coins in my hand that equal 35 cents and one of them is not a quarter. What are they?

Quarter and a dime.

 

[Spamtar]

Hey hey, hide your answers please.

Ok, sorry

 

[VagrantFarce]

I hate riddles, because usually there's only one right answer. Well done Mr Clever-Pants, you successfully obfuscated your point. >.>

 

[entropie]

[YOUTUBE="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qlb57uzn1zE"]xD[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Valuable_Money]

STOP THESE MAD GAMES RIDDLER!

 

[The Decline]

STOP THESE MAD GAMES RIDDLER!

Okay, how about we try to crack some ciphers?