TED科普：你能解开爱因斯坦之谜吗？

经典节目

口语积累

资源下载

史上最聪明的人之一、颠覆物理学的爱因斯坦曾写过一个谜团，你愿意去尝试解开这个谜题吗？

TED视频TED演讲稿

Before he turned physics upside down, a young Albert Einstein supposedly showed off his genius by devising a complex riddle involving this list of clues.

在他颠覆物理学之前，一个年轻的阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦设计了一个带一系列线索的复杂的谜题，来展示他的天分。

Can you resist tackling a brain teaser written by one of the smartest people in history?

你能抗拒去解一个历史上最聪明的人之一写的谜团吗？

Let's give it a shot.

让我们试一试。

The world's rarest fish has been stolen from the city aquarium.

世界上最罕见的鱼从城市水族馆被盗了。

The police have followed the scent to a street with five identical looking houses.

警察追踪线索，查到有五座一模一样的房子的街上。

But they can't search all the houses at once, and if they pick the wrong one, the thief will know they're on his trail.

但是他们不能同时搜查所有的房子，他们一旦选错房子，便会打草惊蛇。

It's up to you, the city's best detective, to solve the case.

就看你，城市里最棒的侦查员来破案。

When you arrive on the scene, the police tell you what they know.

当你来到现场时，警察告诉你他们了解的情况。

One: each house's owner is of a different nationality, drinks a different beverage, and smokes a different type of cigar.

第一：每栋房子的主人都来自不同国籍，喝不同的饮料，抽不同的雪茄。

Two: each house's interior walls are painted a different color.

第二：每栋房子的室内墙都刷有不同颜色的涂料。

Three: each house contains a different animal, one of which is the fish.

第三：每栋房子里都有不同的动物，其中有一栋就是被偷的鱼。

After a few hours of expert sleuthing, you gather some clues.

经过几个小时的仔细侦查，你搜集到了一些线索。

It may look like a lot of information, but there's a clear logical path to the solution.

看似有很多信息，但是有一条清晰合理的破案途径。

Solving the puzzle will be a lot like Sudoku, so you may find it helpful to organize your information in a grid, like this.

解开谜团就像做数独一样所以，把线索做成一张表格会有助于破案。

To start, you fill in the information from clues eight and nine.

先开始，首先从第八和第九条线索开始。

Immediately, you also realize that since the Norwegian is at the end of the street, there's only one house next to him, which must be the one with the blue walls in clue fourteen.

你立即就能发现挪威人住在马路的第一栋房子里，在他旁边的只有一栋房子，通过第十四条线索推断，第二栋肯定有蓝色墙。

Clue five says the green-walled house's owner drinks coffee.

第五条线索说绿墙房子的主人喝咖啡。

It can't be the center house since you already know its owner drinks milk, but it also can't be the second house, which you know has blue walls.

这不可能是中间的那栋房子，因为你已经知道他喝牛奶，但是也不可能是第二栋房子，因为你已经知道是蓝色的墙。

And since clue four says the green-walled house must be directly to the left of the white-walled one, it can't be the first or fifth house either.

而且第四条线索说：绿墙房子在白墙房子的左边，所以不可能是第一栋或第五栋房子。

The only place left for the green-walled house with the coffee drinker is the fourth spot, meaning the white-walled house is the fifth.

那绿墙房子里喝咖啡的主人唯一可能在的地方就是第四栋房子了，也就意味着第五栋房子是白墙。

Clue one gives you a nationality and a color.

第一条线索给了国籍和墙的颜色。

Since the only column missing both these values is the center one, this must be the Brit's red-walled home.

只有一栏既没有已知颜色也没有国籍，那这个肯定是英国人的红墙房子了。

Now that the only unassigned wall color is yellow, this must be applied to the first house, where clue seven says the Dunhill smoker lives.

现在只有一个颜色还没有看到：黄色，那就肯定是第一栋房子了，线索七说抽登喜路雪茄的人就住在这里。

And clue eleven tells you that the owner of the horse is next door, which can only be the second house.

第十一条线索告诉你养马的人就住在隔壁，那就只有可能是第二栋房子了。

The next step is to figure out what the Norwegian in the first house drinks.

接下来一步就是找到第一栋房子里的挪威人喝什么。

It can't be tea, clue three tells you that's the Dane.

不可能是茶，因为线索三说丹麦人喝茶。

As per clue twelve, it can't be root beer since that person smokes Bluemaster, and since you already assigned milk and coffee, it must be water.

根据线索十二也不可能是树根啤酒，因为那个人抽Bluemaster，而且你已经分配好牛奶和咖啡了，那就肯定是水。

From clue fifteen, you know that the Norwegian's neighbor, who can only be in the second house, smokes Blends.

根据线索十五，你知道挪威人的邻居，只有可能是第二栋房子，抽Blends雪茄。

Now that the only spot in the grid without a cigar and a drink is in the fifth column, that must be the home of the person in clue twelve.

现在只剩下一栋房子的主人还不知道喝什么饮料，抽什么雪茄，也就是第五栋房子，这就肯定是线索十二里的人的家了。

And since this leaves only the second house without a drink, the tea-drinking Dane must live there.

只有第二栋房子的主人还不知道喝什么饮料，喝茶的丹麦人肯定住在这儿。

The fourth house is now the only one missing a nationality and a cigar brand, so the Prince-smoking German from clue thirteen must live there.

第四栋房子是唯一一栋不知道国籍和雪茄牌子的房子了所以，根据线索十三，抽Pinrce雪茄的德国人肯定住在这里。

Through elimination, you can conclude that the Brit smokes Pall Mall and the Swede lives in the fifth house, while clue six and clue two tell you that these two have a bird and a dog, respectively.

通过排除法，你可以总结英国人抽Pall Mall，并且瑞典人住在第五栋房子里，线索二和六告诉你这两个人分别养鸟和狗。

Clue ten tells you that the cat owner lives next to the Blend-smoking Dane, putting him in the first house.

线索十告诉你养猫的人是抽Blend的丹麦人的邻居也就是第一栋房子里。

Now with only one spot left on the grid, you know that the German in the green-walled house must be the culprit.

现在表格里只有一个空白位置，你就能知道绿墙房子里的德国人是罪魁祸首。

You and the police burst into the house, catching the thief fish-handed.

你和警察冲进屋内，抓住盗鱼的小偷。

While that explanation was straightforward, solving puzzles like this often involves false starts and dead ends.

虽然这个解释简单明了，解开这样的谜题通常会开头不妙或者碰上死路。

Part of the trick is to use the process of elimination and lots of trial and error to hone in on the right pieces, and the more logic puzzles you solve, the better your intuition will be for when and where there's enough information to make your deductions.

常用的技巧就是排除法和多次尝试去找到正确的方向，解开的谜题越多，你的直觉就会更加敏锐，你就知道如何使用已知信息推断。

And did young Einstein really write this puzzle? Probably not.

真的是年轻的爱因斯坦自己写下这个谜题吗？应该不是。

There's no evidence he did, and some of the brands mentioned are too recent.

没有证据指明是他写的，而且有些雪茄牌子是近代的。

But the logic here is not so different from what you'd use to solve equations with multiple variables, even those describing the nature of the universe.

但是这里使用的逻辑性和你解多元方程时的逻辑没有什么不同，甚至和描述宇宙中的自然现象是一样的。

RECOMMEND
推荐阅读我知道你“在看”