Four people are sitting around a campfire after a long day of recreation, when one man comments: "Do you realize that around this campfire, the four of us include a mother, father, brother, sister, son, daughter, niece, nephew, aunt, uncle and a couple of cousins"?.
If everyone is related by blood (with no unusual marriages) how is this possible?

I think to find the "best" solution, we have to assume he is the mother of someone else in the group. If there was a major trick like what Jer pointed out (which was a good observation) it should be in tricks.

Note that there is 4 x 3 or 12 relations. All 12 relations are listed, and none of them are "grandparent/grandson" or so on, so all 4 must be represented in two "generations" Also, at least 5 of them are women, and at least 5 are men, meaning there must be at least two women and two men in the situation.

From here it's "quick" *cough* :) to check a few situations, the first being a brother and sister each having a daughter or son respectively. This gives the intended result.

Posted by Gamer on 2004-03-31 15:30:19