Using matrix operations to solve the Einstein's riddle. Part II.
November 16, 2015
In the previous part of this article we formulated the Einstein's riddle in terms of matrices, and presented three matrix operations that will be the base for an algorithm to solve the riddle. In this part we'll be talking about this algorithm, and a JavaScript implementation which will allow solving this riddle and any other grid riddle similar to this one.
There are some programming languages as Prolog, designed to work with logic facts, where you can deal with logical problems in a natural way. By using the matrix formulation we can use any programming language to deal with this kind of riddles. Here we provide the implementation, in JavaScript, of the matrix object with the three basic operators used to solve the riddles. The selection of JavaScript is not arbitrary, it allows to show the effectiveness of the algorithm in this same post.
Using matrix operations to solve the Einstein's riddle. Part I.
October 27, 2015
There are several logical grid puzzles you can find on the internet, but undoubtedly, one of the most popular known is the Einstein's riddle. Although it's attributed to Einstein, there's no evidence to back up that claim. It's rumoured that only 2% of the world can solve it, but it's really not so hard, all one needs is logic and deduction. In this article we are going to present a method based entirely on matrix operations to solve this riddle and any other similar.
The riddle
There are five houses in five different colours in a row. In each house lives a person with a different nationality. The five owners drink a certain type of beverage, smoke a certain brand of cigar and keep a certain pet. No owners have the same pet, smoke the same brand of cigar, or drink the same beverage. The question is: Who owns the fish?
