A man in my neighbourhood has three daughters. One day when I asked their ages he said:

"The product of their ages is 36".

When I still couldn't find their ages he said:

"Ok. I'll give you another clue: the sum of their ages is same as the number of my house".

I knew the number but still couldn't calculate their ages. So the man gave me a last hint, he said:

"My eldest daughter lives upstairs".

Finally I was able to find their ages. Can you?

The ages can be (()=sum):

1,1,36 (38)        1,6,6 (13)

1,2,18 (21)        2,2,9 (13)

1,3,12 (16)        2,3,6 (11)

1,4,9 (14)          3,3,4 (10)

since he could not deduce the sum, even though he knew the house number, so the ages mst be 1,6,6 or 2,2,9. But since the oldest child's age is unique, the ages must be 2,2,9.           

                            

Posted by joshua on 2006-08-26 10:53:32