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When First the Marriage Knot was Ty'd (Posted on 2004-12-02) Difficulty: 1 of 5

This riddle comes from a book entitled "The American Tutor's Assistant", dated 1791.

When first the marriage knot was ty’d
Between my wife and me,
My age was to that of my bride
As three times three to three
But now when ten and half ten years,
We man and wife have been,
Her age to mine exactly bears,
As eight is to sixteen;
Now tell, I pray, from what I’ve said,
What were our ages when we wed?

See The Solution Submitted by Erik O.    
Rating: 4.1111 (9 votes)

Comments: ( Back to comment list | You must be logged in to post comments.)
Solution A slightly different approach | Comment 22 of 24 |
(In reply to Solution by Bean)

Let the ages of each after 15 years of marriage of the man and his wife be respectively M and N

Hence, from the fundamental tenets governing the puzzle, we obtain:

(i) M = 2N; (ii) (M - 15) = 3(N - 15)

So, substituting M= 2N in (ii), we obtain:
2N - 15 = 3(N-15) giving: N = 30 so that: M = 30*2 = 60

[EDIT] Consequently, subtracting 15 from the each of the values of M and N thus obtained, we observe that at the time of the marriage, the respective ages of the man and his wife were respectively 45 and 15.

Nice puzzle.

 

Edited on June 28, 2007, 11:40 am
  Posted by K Sengupta on 2007-03-04 05:20:55

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