- Ben’s oldest son was a twin.
- All of Ben’s children were twins except for 41 of them.
- All of Ben’s children were triplets except for 41 of them.
- All of Ben’s children were quadruplets except for 41 of them.
How many children did Ben have?
*** Counting triplets as twins or, quadruplets as triplets is not permissible.
FOR sing = 0 TO 41
FOR twinsets = 0 TO 25
FOR tripsets = 0 TO 25
FOR quadsets = 0 TO 25
kids = 2 * twinsets + 3 * tripsets + 4 * quadsets + sing
nontwin = kids - twinsets * 2
nontrip = kids - tripsets * 3
nonquad = kids - quadsets * 4
IF nontwin = 41 AND nontrip = 41 AND nonquad = 41 THEN
PRINT sing; twinsets; tripsets; quadsets, kids
END IF
NEXT
NEXT
NEXT
NEXT
finds
17 6 4 3 53
41 0 0 0 41
for the number of single births, sets of twins, sets of triplets, sets of quadrupleds, and the consequent total number of children.
Statement 1 requires that there be at least one set of twins, to the top line is the solution: there are 53 children all together: 17 singletons, 6 pairs of twins, 4 sets of triplets and 3 sets of quadruplets.
|
|
Posted by Charlie
on 2013-09-02 14:20:54 |
computer solution
