Einstein's Riddle

[Gregory Jorgensen]

So I'm stupid, is that it? I've taken lots of IQ tests and none of them had this
question on them; that's probably why I don't score so well! Actually I did
figure out that the German owned the fish. Furthermore I was able to determine
that the fish is named Eric. 

"I am not a looney! Why should I be tied with the epithet looney merely because
I have a pet halibut? I've heard tell that Sir Gerald Nabardo has a pet prawn
called Simon and you wouldn't call him a looney; furthermore, Dawn Pailthorpe,
the lady show-jumper, had a clam, called Stafford, after the late Chancellor,
Allan Bullock has two pikes, both called Chris, and Marcel Proust had an
haddock! So, if you're calling the author of 'A la recherche du temps perdu' a
looney, I shall have to ask you to step outside!"

-- Monty Python, "Fish License"


"If you use logic on me I'll lose my advantage." -- Michael Caine, in "Blame it
on Rio"


In article <mailman.984369618.12493.python-list at python.org>, Tim Peters says...

>It's a std feature of "advanced" IQ tests that the problem stmts are
>intentionally somewhat vague:  part of what they're testing is whether you
>can come up with the most reasonable assumptions necessary to make the
>problem *interesting*.  Since the problem statement here asked "Who owns the
>fish?", and the problem admits of a unique solution if you assume *someone*
>owns a fish, that's a more interesting assumption to make than to complain
>that the question is ill-defined; the ability to fill in gaps reasonably is
>as much a kind of intelligence as the ability to follow chains of reasoning.
>
>You could cover both cheeks by answering "if anyone owns a fish, it must be
>the German".  Then again, you may prefer to complain that "on the left of"
>doesn't necessarily imply adjacent to; or that the problem statement never
>says that a person who "lives in" a house is also its "owner"; or etc etc.
>
>reading-a-question-as-trivial-is-best-reserved-for-saints-ly y'rs  - tim

Greg Jorgensen
Deschooling Society
Portland, Oregon, USA
gregj at pobox.com