Poll: Can you solve this logic puzzle?

[Eric the Orange]

So in the most recent Alt+Escape ( http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/alt-escape/6748-Alt-Escape-Cat-Got-Los ) this logic puzzle was mentioned.

http://www.brain-fun.com/Brain-Teasers/EinsteinsRiddle.php

In which it said that Einstein predicted that only 2% of people could figure it out. Now at least 3 of the 13 people that commented in that thread said they figured it out. Which is obviously higher than 2%.

So what I'm interested in seeing is what kind of percentage of people in the escapist community can figure it out. I would appreciate it if you answered honestly without cheating and didn't give away the answer to others.

 

[DrunkWithPower]

This is really easy if you know how to set everything up. I had to do it in a logic and stat class.... stupid Einstein.

 

[sheic99]

I've seen this problem before, only with the clues being slightly different, but I have solved it in the past.

 

[Clyde]

Statistically, you have a 1/5 chance of getting it right based on luck alone.

 

[Omikron009]

I could probably solve this if I wanted to, but the thing that keeps me from doing things like this, always, is my extreme impatience. Damn me.

 

[Eric the Orange]

Statistically, you have a 1/5 chance of getting it right based on luck alone.

Hence why the question is, "did you solve the logic puzzle?", not "did you guess the right answer?",

 

[Julianking93]

Hurrah!!! I got it right!

Suck it Einstein.

 

[ae86gamer]

I own the pet fish. Problem solved.

[sub]OT: I tried it and got it wrong.[/sub]

 

[Bakaferret]

I could probably solve this if I wanted to, but the thing that keeps me from doing things like this, always, is my extreme impatience. Damn me.

Agreed. At first I was intrigued, and then I thought, "I wonder what else is on the internet today?" and quickly moved on.

 

[Trivun]

I live for these and I do Mathematical Logic 1 as one of my modules at university. If I could be bothered to do the puzzle then given perhaps half an hour, maybe a full hour, then I could do it. However, since it's a Friday night/Saturday morning, I decided just for the hell of it to pull an all-nighter at random and so haven't slept for almost 24 hours. Thus I can't be that bothered really to do this puzzle, since I'm trying to stay awake until at least 10pm tonight if possible, as a personal challenge Only 15 hours to go, it seems... .

But yeah, I decided not to bother trying the puzzle, for the record.

 

[blankedboy]

Einstien was actually quite a fucktard... people claim he discovered E=MC2, but his idea was E=MC3. Isaac Newton corrected about half of his theorums.

 

[crudus]

rather easy problem that can be solved by brute force alone (that is computing brute force). and 13 people (especially ones on message boards which will get you a volunteer bias more than likely) is not a good representative sample. Though I will admit that 2% is rather low.

 

[quiet_samurai]

Trying to figure it out internally would be a little hard, butwriting it out on a piece of paper is simple.

 

[geldonyetich]

Seeing how a fish isn't even mentioned as a part of the data provided (I wouldn't count the question as data) you just have to assume that the one whose pet isn't mentioned must own a pet fish. Given all the possible pets in the world (or those who have chosen to go without pet ownership) I would assert that the probability that somebody owns a pet fish because you don't know what pet they have isn't good enough. The problem isn't definitively solvable.

Still, Einstein must have made a lot of friends by showing they can be in this 2% if they have some paper and the patience to see it through. Alas, I did not.

 

[Eric the Orange]

rather easy problem that can be solved by brute force alone (that is computing brute force). and 13 people (especially ones on message boards which will get you a volunteer bias more than likely) is not a good representative sample. Though I will admit that 2% is rather low.

Really? Well you people are smarter than me then. I consider myself quite logical and it took me around an hour to figure it out.

as for the 3 out of 13, I just stated that as the reason I decided to start this thread, because it obviously wasn't 2%, so I wanted to see what kind of percentage I get. It's entirely possible that only people who could figure it out will answer the question and ones who could not will ignore it, making the results lie far more heavily on the yes side than they normally would.

 

[grimsprice]

Einstien was actually quite a fucktard... people claim he discovered E=MC2, but his idea was E=MC3. Isaac Newton corrected about half of his theorums.

Lolwut. Isaac Newton died over a century before Einstein was born...

 

[Eric the Orange]

Einstien was actually quite a fucktard... people claim he discovered E=MC2, but his idea was E=MC3. Isaac Newton corrected about half of his theorums.

Wait, what? Are you joking? Newton died in 1727, and Einstein was born in 1879.

But anyway what does Einsteins character really have to do with the problem?

 

[SonicKoala]

Einstien was actually quite a fucktard... people claim he discovered E=MC2, but his idea was E=MC3. Isaac Newton corrected about half of his theorums.

lmao what a FAIL!

As for the OP, I figured this riddle out before. It took me a good hour or so - the whole "only 2% of the world's people" can solve it is a bit of a strecth, but it is tough.

 

[Tyburn Cross]

I solved it after about ten minutes. I was stuck up in one spot for most of it, but the light-bulb finally hit me, and I figured it out.

Einstien was actually quite a fucktard... people claim he discovered E=MC2, but his idea was E=MC3. Isaac Newton corrected about half of his theorums.

4 January 1643 ? 31 March 1727 - Isaac Newton
14 March 1879 ? 18 April 1955 - Albert Einstein

Now, being as Isaac Newton lived well before Einstein, how did he go about correcting his faults?

Edit: Others beat me to it.

 

[crudus]

rather easy problem that can be solved by brute force alone (that is computing brute force). and 13 people (especially ones on message boards which will get you a volunteer bias more than likely) is not a good representative sample. Though I will admit that 2% is rather low.

Really? Well you people are smarter than me then. I consider myself quite logical and it took me around an hour to figure it out.

as for the 3 out of 13, I just stated that as the reason I decided to start this thread, because it obviously wasn't 2%, so I wanted to see what kind of percentage I get. It's entirely possible that only people who could figure it out will answer the question and ones who could not will ignore it, making the results lie far more heavily on the yes side than they normally would.

I didn't say that I took one look at it and got it right away. I said that it just required time. There is no twist to it, there is no think out of the box, just do it. Yes, what you described is the "volunteer bias" in your "representative sample"(aside from the fact that 13 people on a message board isn't enough to represent for 6 billion people).