Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Einstein's Puzzle Thorough Walkthrough (Spoilers)- Pt2

,
This is the walkthrough for Einstein's Puzzle. If you haven't read the original puzzle/question, you should go ahead and click on the link below. Below will be the explanation of the method I utilized to solve the puzzle. If you want to avoid spoilers you should view the original question before reading below.

For Previous parts: Part 1

You can find the Puzzle here.

Skip to here if you just want a spoiler free answer check

Walkthrough:

So this is simple logic puzzle with no real tricks or second guesses. So all you really need is organization to solve this puzzle. I'll be breaking this walkthrough into parts, so you can try it on your own after reading an article:

Here's how I solved it.

A visual depiction of linking.

-----------------------------------------------------
So here is my three categories of clues (for your ease of reference)

          Direct Link:
  1. Brit * Red House
  2. Swede * Dogs
  3. Dane * Tea
  4. Green * Coffee
  5. Pall Mall * Birds
  6. Yellow * Dunhill
  7. #3 * Milk
  8. Norwegian * #1
  9. Bluemaster * Juice
  10. German * Prince

    Unlinked:
  11. Green (L) White
  12. Blends (N) Cats
  13. Horse (N) Dunhill
  14. Norwegian (N) Blue
  15. Blends (N) Water

    Negative Link:
  16. Green ~ White
  17. Blends ~ Cats
  18. Horse ~ Dunhill
  19. Norwegian ~ Blue
  20. Blends ~ Water
Key:
*  = linked
(L) = is left of
(N) = is next to
~ = Is not linked to

The reason I do this is to make referencing and understanding the clues much faster and more efficient. I refer to each of these clues by #. For instance the link between house #3 and Milk is Clue 7.
----------------------------------------------------

So here's when I finally get to the step that you probably jumped to on your first attempt of this problem. The filling out of the chart. I start by filling in the Direct clues:



Which doesn't provide us too much for a very specific reason: Our grid here makes it quite difficult to enter information for links between things that are not tied down by nationality. Where do you put the clue about how "Green * Coffee"? 

So this is where a lot of organized thoughts stop, and people start to flail. But not us! We shall keep this grid, and try to solve it. How? By working with what we can learn about each Nationality!

-------------------------
I will demonstrate the method I utilized and my thought process with a simple 4 step process:

Step 1: Lets start with the Brit. What do we know about him? 
  • Brit
    • Red House (Clue 1)
Step 2: Hmm, that doesn't help us much. But then we remember that all things that are linked to the other Nationalities are not linked to the Brit. So we get:
  • Brit
    • Red House
    • ~Tea (Clue 3)
    • ~Dogs (Clue 2)
    • ~#1 (Clue 8)
    • ~Prince (Clue 10)
Step 3: Ok, so that tells us a bit more, but what else can we find out about the Brit? Well, since he is linked to the red house, then only things linked to "Red House" will affect him. Everything that effects houses of other colors are not attributed to the Brit.

  • Brit
    • Red House
    • ~Tea
    • ~Dogs
    • ~#1
    • ~Prince
    • ~ Coffee (Clue 4)
    • ~ Dunhill (Clue 6)
Step 4: Ok, is that absolutely ALL I can get from it? Well, there are those "Unlinked clues". Maybe I can add those in:
  • Brit
    • Red House
    • ~Tea
    • ~ Coffee
    • ~Dogs
    • ~Prince
    • ~ Dunhill
    • ~#1
    • ~(L) White
    • ~(N) Norwegian

I repeat this process with each person of Nationality:
  • Swede
    • Dogs (Clue 2)
    • ~Red (Clue 1)
    • ~Tea (Clue 3)
    • ~Prince (Clue 10)
    • ~Pall Mall (Clue 5)
    • ~#1 (Clue 8)
    • ~(N) Blends (Clue 12)
    • ~(N) Dunhill (Clue 14)
  • Dane
    • Tea (Clue 3)
    • ~Red (Clue 1)
    • ~Green (Clue 4)
    • ~Dogs (Clue 2)
    • ~#1 (Clue 8)
    • ~#3 (Clue 7)
    • ~Prince (Clue 10)
    • ~Bluemaster (Clue 9)
    • ~(N) Blends (Clue 15)
  • Norwegian
    • #1 (Clue 8)
    • (N) Blue (Clue 14)
    • ~Blue (Clue 19)
    • ~Red (Clue 1)
    • ~Dogs (Clue 2)
    • ~Prince (Clue 10)
    • ~Tea (Clue 3)
    • ~Milk (Clue 7)
  • German
    • Prince (Clue 10)
    • ~#1 (Clue 8)
    • ~Red (Clue 1)
    • ~Yellow (Clue 6)
    • ~Tea (Clue 3)
    • ~Juice (Clue 9)
    • ~Birds (Clue 5)
    • ~Dogs (Clue 2)
    • ~(N) Cats (Clue 12)
    • ~(N) Horses (Clue 13)
------------------------------
Whew, that took a while. But now its time to do the fun part with the analysis. It's a good time to refresh our memory about Sherlock Holmes' famous line about deduction:

"How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?"
     The Sign of the Four, ch. 6 (1890)

So how does this phrase pertain? Well, with each of our gentlemen above, we have eliminated the impossible. So what remains? Does it provide us with any solid facts?

No? Well lets look at what remains for each in each category:
  • Brit-
    • Drinks- Milk, Water, Juice
    • Pets- Cats, Horses, Birds, Fish
    • Smokes- Pall Mall, Blends, Bluemaster
    • House Color- Red
    • House Number- #2, #3, #4, #5
  • Swede-
    • Drinks- Coffee, Milk, Juice, Water
    • Pets- Dogs
    • Smokes- Dunhill, Blends, Bluemaster
    • House Color- Green, Yellow, Blue, White
    • House Number- #2, #3, #4, #5
  • Dane-  
    • Drinks- Tea
    • Pets-Birds, Fish, Cat, Horses
    • Smokes- Pall Mall, Dunhill, Blends
    • House Color-  Yellow, Blue, White
    • House Number- #2, #4, #5
  • Norwegian-
    • Drinks- Coffee, Juice, Water
    • Pets-Birds, Fish, Cat, Horses
    • Smokes- Pall Mall, Dunhill, Blends, Bluemaster
    • House Color- Green, Yellow, White
    • House Number- #1
  • German-
    • Drinks- Coffee, Milk, Water
    • Pets-Fish, Cat, Horse
    • Smokes- Prince
    • House Color- Blue, White, Green
    • House Number- #2, #3, #4, #5
--------------------------------------

Here's your chance to go and try to solve it for yourself. If you're eager to see how it is solved, continue onto part 3

Or double check your answer (spoiler-free) here

0 comments to “Einstein's Puzzle Thorough Walkthrough (Spoilers)- Pt2”

Post a Comment