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Below is a puzzle that I have created, with great inspiration from the Einstein Riddle.

There are 5 houses, each house has one unique owner (for the sake of clarity, let's assume that the owners are all heterosexual men). These men all have different nationalities, different ages, different wives, different vehicles and different jobs.
The aim of this puzzle is to deduce enough information from the hints below in order to answer my questions. Best of luck.

Hints:

  1. The 22 year old is Italian.
  2. The 52 year old is married to Sarah.
  3. The 45 year old drives a hatchback.
  4. The Scotsman is 20 years old.
  5. The Japanese man lives directly to the left of the Italian.
  6. Louise is married to the Analyst.
  7. The Defense Attorney lives next to the man that rides a Bicycle.
  8. The man living in the 5th house is married to Zoey.
  9. The 70 year old lives in the center house.
  10. The Telemarketer lives next to the man who drives an SUV and the man who is 52 years old.
  11. The Politician lives next to the man who drives an SUV.
  12. The man who drives a Sports Car is an Analyst.
  13. The 20 year old rides a Bicycle.
  14. The 70 year old lives directly to the left of the Swiss man.
  15. Andrea lives next to the Analyst.
  16. Louise lives next to the American.
  17. The politician drives a sedan.

Questions

  1. Who is the programmer?
  2. Who is the politician married to?

Something to note - question 1 can be answered with the same logic as applied to the Einstein Riddle, but question 2 requires an open mind and attention to detail.

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  • $\begingroup$ Japanese man lives left to Italian -> directly left or some skipped between ? Also, "The Telemarketer lives next to the man who drives an SUV and the man who is 52 years old." both are indicating to the same person or may be different ? $\endgroup$
    – user27395
    Oct 6, 2016 at 14:58
  • $\begingroup$ Directly to the left, I have edited it to be more clear. Thank you! As for the second question, that is for you to find out. $\endgroup$
    – Danilo
    Oct 6, 2016 at 15:00
  • $\begingroup$ And my other questoin ? $\endgroup$
    – user27395
    Oct 6, 2016 at 15:01
  • $\begingroup$ there are 4 names only or im blind? $\endgroup$
    – lois6b
    Oct 6, 2016 at 15:03
  • $\begingroup$ I have listed only 4 names, just as Einstein never explicitly mentioned the fish in his clues. $\endgroup$
    – Danilo
    Oct 6, 2016 at 15:04

3 Answers 3

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fdr seems to have gotten Question 1 and everything right except Question 2 for what OP was looking for

So Question 2:

fdr put Andrea in the middle house so that would be the answer but she is just as acceptable in the first house. Technically fdr is correct. Anyways for what I know OP was reaching towards, moving Andrea to house 1 the wives names are in alphabetical order. So we're looking for a woman with a name from L-S married to an American politician who is 70 years old. OP's picture is Trump, Trump is 70, his wife is Melania.

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  • $\begingroup$ This should be a comment. $\endgroup$
    – user27395
    Oct 6, 2016 at 15:46
  • $\begingroup$ he had not enough rep to comment. now he has because his answer is very interesting. OP should have put lateral-thinking? $\endgroup$
    – lois6b
    Oct 6, 2016 at 15:46
  • $\begingroup$ Great job on getting the second question right! $\endgroup$
    – Danilo
    Oct 6, 2016 at 15:50
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OK, posting the logic of the already supplied answers - or at least how I figured it out.

Using the original puzzle the OP posted, we create a matrix similar to the one below and fill it in with

Hint 8 - Zoey is in house 5, Hint 9 - 70 year old is in house 3, Hint 14 - 70 year old directly to the left of the Swiss

matrix start

enter image description here

Next use

Hint 1 and 5 together - the Italian is 22 and the Japanese is directly to the left. That eliminates houses 3 (70 year old), and 4/5 (already Swiss so can't be Italian or Japanese)

giving us a matrix like this

enter image description here

The next set of hints was a little more tricky

Hint 10 says the telemarketer is next to the SUV driver and the 52 year old while Hint 11 tells us the politician is also next to the SUV driver. These two clues indicate the SUV driver is between the telemarketer and the politician, which means the SUV driver and the 52 year old are one and the same. House 4 is the only place the 52 year old will fit, having two others, one on either side. Furthermore Hint 2 gives us the 52 year old's wife's name and Hint 17 tells us the politician drives a sedan.

Our new matrix

enter image description here

Now to figure out the last couple of age spots...

Hint 4 tells us the Scot is 20, since house 3 and 5 are the only ones without nationalities, the 70 year old politician in house 3 has to be American and the Scot lives in house 5 with Zoey. Additionally Hint 13 indicates the Scot rides a bicycle. That leaves Hint 3 only one spot for the 45 year old in the hatchback.

The nationalities are completed along with the ages

enter image description here

The last few Hints are plugged in like so

Hint 7 says the DA lives next to the bicyclist (house 5) leaving only one possibility; house 4. Hint 16 says Louise lives next to the American and the only possibility left for that is house 2, meaning the Italian is the Analyst (Hint 6) and drives a sports car (Hint 12). The last hint 15, tells us the name of the Japanese man's wife; Andrea. This of course could be the wife for the 70 year old politician, but that would not jive with the answer to the second question.

Leaving the final matrix as

enter image description here

Making the programmer in question 1

The Japanese man in house 1

And the wife in Question 2...well I'll just borrow from Ryan to put it all in one answer...

...[T]he wives names are in alphabetical order. So we're looking for a woman with a name from L-S married to an American politician who is 70 years old. OP's picture is Trump, Trump is 70, his wife is Melania.

Admittedly, I probably would not have figured out the last hint, for a certainity, or the answer to the second question on my own; my brain doesn't work that way...yet. This answer isn't intended for upvoting and is only meant to provide the logical flow since it wasn't provided in the first two answers.

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  • $\begingroup$ You can always give a Community Wiki status to your post. $\endgroup$
    – Matsmath
    Oct 6, 2016 at 19:48
  • $\begingroup$ How do you do that? $\endgroup$
    – Steve Mangiameli
    Oct 6, 2016 at 19:48
  • $\begingroup$ By editing your post, and ticking a checkbox somewhere around the lower right corner. See some info. $\endgroup$
    – Matsmath
    Oct 6, 2016 at 19:55
  • $\begingroup$ Cool. I didn't know that existed. $\endgroup$
    – Steve Mangiameli
    Oct 6, 2016 at 20:40
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Who is the programmer?

The programmer is the Japanese living in the first house.

Who is the politician married to?

He is married to Andrea. The Japanese seems to be single.

Solution

$ \begin{matrix} House: & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 \\ Nationality: & Japanese & Italian & American & Swiss & Scotsman \\ Age: & 45 & 22 & 70 & 52 & 20 \\ Wife: & [none] & Louise & Andrea & Sarah & Zoey \\ Vehicle: & Hatchback & Sports \ Car & Sedan & SUV & Bicycle \\ Job: & Programmer & Analyst & Politician & DA & Telemarketer \end{matrix}$

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  • $\begingroup$ how did you come to those conclusions? $\endgroup$
    – Steve Mangiameli
    Oct 6, 2016 at 15:31
  • $\begingroup$ I don't know how 6 fits. $\endgroup$
    – user27395
    Oct 6, 2016 at 15:42
  • $\begingroup$ Good job on working it out! The second question needed a bit more work though. $\endgroup$
    – Danilo
    Oct 6, 2016 at 15:51
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ did you brute force this? What was the logic you used? This is killing me. $\endgroup$
    – Steve Mangiameli
    Oct 6, 2016 at 16:57

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