+-----+-----+
| A | |
+-----+-----+-----+
| B | |
+-----+-----+
The ages of Ambrose, Brandon and Chester can be related to the diagram above so that when just one digit is written in each box:
- A across is Ambrose's age in years.
- A down is the sum of Ambrose's and Brandon's age in years.
- B across is the sum of Ambrose's age, Brandon's age and Chester's age
in years.
- Two of Ambrose, Brandon and Chester are the same age in years.
Who is a different age in years from the other two?
Observations:
1) Ages of A + B + C end in the same digit as A + B, so C ends in a zero.
2) Ages of A + B start with same digit as A, so B is necessarily 0 through 9.
3) If an Age of 0 is allowed, then B and C could be newborn twins, and A is the odd man out.
4) If an Age of 0 is not allowed, but ages starting with zero are allowed, then C could be odd man out. For instance, Ambrose = Brandon = 4, and C is 90.
5) So I guess that we are supposed to assume that ages cannot be 0 and cannot start with a zero. In that case, B is 1 through 9 and cannot be the same as C (which ends in 0). And B cannot be the same as A, because A is more than 9. So B is the odd man out. Possible example: A = 10, C = 10, B = 5.
Expected answer: B
Alternative answers (depending on assumptions): A, C