Who Drinks Water and Who Owns the Zebra? (Derived from Einstein’s Riddle)
Logic
Level
2
There are five (5) homes in a row, each of a different color, inhabited by people of different nationalities, who own different pets, and who drink different drinks and play different sports.
- The German lives in the red house.
- The Spaniard owns a dog.
- Coffee is drank in the green house.
- The green house is immediately to the left (your left) of the ivory house.
- The Ukrainian drinks tea.
- The golfer owns snails.
- Baseball is played in the yellow house.
- Milk is drunk in the middle house.
- The Norwegian lives in the first house on the left.
- The swimmer lives in the house next to the person with the fox.
- Baseball is played in the house next to the house where the horse is kept.
- Football player drinks orange juice.
- The Japanese plays lacrosse.
- The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
- The swimmer lives next to the person who drinks water.
Now, who drinks water and who owns the zebra?
There is not enough information to determine
Japanese drinks the water and Norwegian owns zebra
German drinks water and Ukrainian owns zebra
Norwegian drinks water and Japanese owns zebra
Spaniard drinks water and German owns zebra
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1 solution
Chart A below shows all possibilities with the houses numbered 1 through 5 across the top and the colors, nationalities, pets, drinks, and sports listed along the left side. Starting with what is given in the problem, milk is drunk in the middle house and is marked with a O (O = Is) and the number 8 showing where the information came from.
Chart B (above right) shows things we can deduct from what we know which are marked with an X (X=Is Not). Since Milk is drunk in the middle house (#3) it can not be drunk in houses 1, 2, 4, or 5. Also, no other beverage can be drunk in house 3. Further, Since coffee is drunk in the green house and coffee is not drunk in house 3 it can not be green. Likewise, since the Ukrainian drinks tea (5), house 3 can not belong to the Ukrainian. Also, since the football player drinks orange juice (12) the football player can not live in house 3.
NOTE: This is a good place to try the rest on your own using the same logic.
Chart C captures the other known location that the Norwegian lives in the first house on the left (9). This means that no other nationality can live in house 1 and the Norwegian can not live in any other house as shown in chart D. It also means that, since the German lives in the red house, house 1 can not be red and since the Spaniard owns a dog it can not live in house 1. If the Japanese plays lacrosse (13), it is not played in house 1.
Line 14 says that the Norwegian lives next to the blue house and since there is only one house next to the Norwegian, House 2 is blue as captured in chart E. This means we can eliminate house 2 being any other color and all other houses from being blue (Chart F).
Line 4 says that the green house is to the left of the ivory house which eliminates house 1 from being ivory as there is no house to the left and house 5 from being green as there is no house to the right, marked in chart F above. That leaves only yellow for house 1 and eliminates other yellow for the other houses. That leaves only green for house 4 which means house 5 is ivory and house 3 is red.
Since line 1 states that the German lives in the red house which is house 3, the German lives in house 3 as shown in chart G. Also, baseball is played in the yellow house (line 7) and house 1 is yellow so baseball is played in house 1. Coffee is drunk in the green house (line 3) and house 4 is green, so house 4 drinks coffee.
Chart H above has eliminated the German from other houses and other nationalities from house 3, all other sports from house 1 and baseball from all other houses, and all other drinks from house 4 and coffee from all other houses. Also, since the Spaniard owns the dog (line 2) and the German lives in the red house, we know that the dog does not live in house 3. And since the football player drinks orange juice (line 12) and the football player does not live in house 1, orange juice is not drank in house 1.
Line 11 says that baseball is played in the house next to where the horse is kept, and since baseball is played in house 1, the horse can only be kept in house 2, shown in chart I. Also, line 13 says the Japanese plays lacrosse and since the Japanese does not live in house 3, lacrosse can not be played in house 3.
Chart J eliminates other pets from house 2 and the horse from other houses. Line 2 says the Spaniard owns a dog so house 2 can not belong to the Spaniard since it has a horse. Also, since the Ukrainian drinks tea (line 5) and the Ukrainian does not live in house 1, tea can not be drank in house 1. That leaves only water that can be drank in house 1, so the first part of the answer is THE NORWEGIAN DRINKS WATER . Water can be eliminated from the other houses.
According to line 15, the swimmer lives next to the person who drinks water who we just discovered lives in house 1, so the swimmer lives in house 2 as noted in chart K. This removes other sports from house 2 and swimming from house 2.
This leaves golf as the only sport that can be played in house 3 as captured in chart L and golf can be eliminated from house 4 and 5.That makes lacross the only sport that can be played in house 4 and football the only sport left which is played in house 5. Also, since line 6 says the golfer owns snails, it is entered under house 3 and other houses and other pets are eliminated. Since line 5 says the Ukrainian drinks tea, they live in house 2 and the Japanese does not.
Line 13 says the Japanese plays lacross so the Japanese must live in house 4 and that leaves the Spaniard in house 5 as shown in chart M.
Finally, Line 10 states that the swimmer lives next to the person with the fox and swimmer is in house 2 so the fox must be in house 1 shown in chart N. That leaves the zebra in house 4 answering the secon part of the question - THE JAPANESE OWNS THE ZEBRA .