Who Owns The Fish? Solution

There are five houses in a row and each house is a different color.

A different man lives in each house and is from a different country.

Each person drinks a certain drink, plays a certain sport, and keeps a certain pet.

No two people drink the same drink, play the same sport, or raise the same pet.

Use the following 15 facts to determine who owns the fish.
1. The Brit lives in a red house
2. The Swede keeps dogs
3. The Dane drinks tea
4. The green house is on the left of the white house
5. The green house owner drinks coffee
6. The person who plays polo rears birds
7. The owner of the yellow house plays hockey
8. The man living in the house right in the center drinks milk
9. The Norwegian lives in the first house
10. The man who plays baseball lives next to the man who keeps cats
11. The man who keeps horses lives next to the one who plays hockey
12. The man who plays billiards drinks beer
13. The German plays soccer
14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house
15. The man who plays baseball has a neighbor who drinks water.

Solution:
It is easiest to start with a table of the various house colors, nationalities, drinks, sports and pets. This helps us to determine what information we have used and what still needs to be put into the table.
Colors:
Countries:
Drink:
Sport:
Pet:

Red
Brit
Tea
Polo
Dogs
Green
Swede
Coffee
Hockey
Bird
White
Dane
Milk
Baseball
Cats
Yellow
Norwegian
Beer
Billiards
Horses
Blue
German
Water
Soccer
Fish

Next, we need to create a table. We shall use the following categories:
House Color

Nationality

Drink

Sport

Pets

And so, now we shall use the above 15 facts to fill in the table. It is best not to go through the facts in order. Rather, by trying to use the options that limits the number of possibilities.

We begin with fact #9 that the Norwegian lives in the first house.

Norwegian

Next we use fact #14 that the Norwegian lives next to the blue house.

Blue

Norwegian

Now, we have to interpret fact #4 to mean that the green house is directly to the left of the white house. This gives us two possible options.

Blue
Green
White

Norwegian

Blue

Green
White
Norwegian

Next, we use fact #1 that the Brit lives in the Red house. (There is only one option in each of the two above.)

Blue
Green
White
Red
Norwegian

Brit

Blue
Red
Green
White
Norwegian

Brit

Now, we can use both fact #5 (Green house drinks coffee) and fact #7 (Yellow house plays hockey). Note: The only remaining house has to be the yellow house.
Yellow
Blue
Green
White
Red
Norwegian

Brit

Coffee

Hockey

Yellow
Blue
Red
Green
White
Norwegian

Brit

Coffee

Hockey

Next, we use fact #8 that the owner of the center house drinks milk. This eliminates our first possibility, so we see that the Brit drinks milk.
Yellow
Blue
Red
Green
White
Norwegian

Brit

Milk
Coffee

Hockey

Using fact #11 (the man with Horses lives next to the man who plays Hockey), we have the following.
Yellow
Blue
Red
Green
White
Norwegian

Brit

Milk
Coffee

Hockey

Horses

Using fact #3 (The Dane drinks tea), we have two possibilities.
Yellow
Blue
Red
Green
White
Norwegian
Dane
Brit

Tea
Milk
Coffee

Hockey

Horses

Yellow
Blue
Red
Green
White
Norwegian

Brit

Dane

Milk
Coffee
Tea
Hockey

Horses

Now we use fact #2 (The Swede has dogs) to create three possibilities.
Yellow
Blue
Red
Green
White