Math Is Fun Forum

AshJones555

Member

Registered: 2006-05-15

Posts: 19

Need help solving the 'Who owns the fish?' puzzle

Hi, im a 14 year old boy from Cornwall and i need help solving the: 'Who owns the fish?' logic puzzle and i hope you take the time to read my situation and try as hard as you can to help.

Here is the link to said puzzle: http://www.mathsisfun.com/logicpuzzle.html

Let's say the houses are laid out like so: 1 2 3 4 5, one being on the far left of the row and five being on the far right of the row.

Here's what i've come up with so far...

1. The Noweigan lives in the first house and lives next to the blue house, so since there is no house to the left of number 1, number 2 must be blue.

2. The green house is on the left to the white one, so green can't be number 1, 2 or 5 because if it were 1, that would mean white would be 2 when in fact 2 is blue. It can't be 2 because, once again 2 is blue and it cant be 5 because it has nothing to the right of it.

3. Subsequently white can't be 1, 2, or 3 because number 1 has nothing to left of it. It can't be number 2 because it's blue and it can't be number 3 because that would mean number 2 is green when it is in fact blue.

4. This means number 4 is green because, as mentioned earlier it can't be 5 and therefore number 5 must be white.

5. This leaves me with the following discoveries; 1 and 3 must be be red and yellow or vise versa, the owner of number 4 drinks coffee because the house is green, the Brit lives in either 1 or 3 because he lives in a red house, the hockey player is in number 1 or 3 because the owner of the yellow house plays hockey, the horse owner lives in number 2 or 4 because the man who keeps horses lives next to the one who plays hockey.

thanks in advance,
Ash Jones

Last edited by AshJones555 (2006-05-15 09:18:15)

stardust

Member

Registered: 2006-04-09

Posts: 48

Re: Need help solving the 'Who owns the fish?' puzzle

Have you tried drawing a tick/cross grid? You might work out something you haven't got, by doing it that way. That was how i solved it.

AshJones555

Member

Registered: 2006-05-15

Posts: 19

Re: Need help solving the 'Who owns the fish?' puzzle

sort of, ive set it out like so;

1 = red, or yellow
2 = blue
3 = red or yellow
4 = green
5 = white
1. owner = Norweigan, pet =, drink =, sport =
2. owner =, pet =, drink =, sport =
3. owner =, pet =, drink =milk, sport =
4. owner =, pet =, drink =coffee, sport =
5. owner =, pet =, drink =, sport =

I have currently come to a 'brick wall' and so i was hoping for advice on how to solve the puzzle itself.

Last edited by AshJones555 (2006-05-16 09:10:00)

baggyboy7

Member

Registered: 2006-07-24

Posts: 3

Re: Need help solving the 'Who owns the fish?' puzzle

have ypu tried doing it on excel?  in maths the other day, our teacher asked us to do it, it took mee 10 mins, then he showed us how to do it on excel.  bt i dnt no how he did it it.

any way, it says that the brit lives in the red house.  this means that the norewigen lives in the yellow house and the brit lives at number three

hope this gets you started again

there is help here!!!

Guest

Re: Need help solving the 'Who owns the fish?' puzzle

if you want to check what you already have their is a website i found to check my answers when i had finished it is
http://www.geocities.com/oosterwal/puzzle/einsteina.html
hope this site helps you lot out

star_rider1

Member

Registered: 2007-05-01

Posts: 4

Re: Need help solving the 'Who owns the fish?' puzzle

OMG! how comlicated can u get! it took me 25 minutes, im 11 and i just drew some scribbles on a peice of scrap paper, the key is to make it simple and to just try it and if it doesn't work move it around!