Get your pencils out...

A woman is walking down the street and meets her neighbor. The woman says, "I can’t remember the ages of your 3 children." The neighbor replies, "The product of their ages is 36." The woman thinks a minute and says, "I still don’t know the ages of your 3 children." The neighbor replies, "The sum of their ages is your address." The woman thinks a minute and says, "I still don’t know their ages." The neighbor replies, "The oldest has red hair."



What are the ages of the three children?





Shaun

Oh, Props to John Derbyshire...

The redhead is nine and the two younger ones are two year old twins.

Ummmmm.........Tuesday at 3 PM??

This question reminds me of my last day of physics class when I was in college.

The conversation went something like this:

TEACHER: A man in a canoe travels 3mph downstream for 1.3 hours but on his return trip he can only travel .3mph. What is his average rate of speed?

Monte raises his hand:

"Was he late?"

TEACHER: No.

Monte: "Who cares?"

Needles to say I recieved a "less than satisfactory" grade for that class.

Ages 6, 3 and 2. ????????? and shes carrying a bag of red herrings.

Rob got the answer right away...


Solution. We have to find three whole numbers that, when multiplied together, make 36, There are just eight possibilities: 1-1-36, 1-2-18, 1-3-12, 1-4-9, 1-6-6, 2-2-9, 2-3-6, 3-3-4. If you add up the numbers in each triplet, you get: 38, 21, 16, 14, 13, 13, 11, 10.

Now, when the second woman was told that the ages added up to her address, she still didn't know the answers. Her address must therefore be 13. If it had been one of the other numbers — 38, 21, 16, 14, 11, or 10 — she would have been able to pin down the triplet. Only with 13 can she not do this, because two triplets add up to 13: 1-6-6 and 2-2-9.

However, once the neighbor says: "The oldest...," she knows it must be 2-2-9, since if the kids' ages are 1-6-6, there is no oldest!

Answer: the children are aged 2, 2, and 9.

Shaun

Ouch - that made my brain hurt :-)

Mine too!!!!....... think I'll go count rivets....... :-) :-) :-)