The hostess, at her 20th wedding anniversary party, tells you that her youngest child likes her to pose this problem to guests, and she proceeds to explain: "I normally ask guests to determine the ages of my three children, given the sum and products of their ages. Since Smith gave an incorrect answer to the problem tonight and Jones gave an incorrect answer at the party two years ago, I'll let you off the hook."

Your response is "No need to tell me more, their ages are..."

The criteria used to answer this question was

1. The ages could be anywhere from 2 to 29
2. The youngest child's age has to be less than other 2
3. Their present age no unique multiplication and sum value
4. Their ages two years ago also didnt had unique multiplication and sum values.

criteria 1 2 and 3 provide 76 possible combinations of ages

criteria 4 narrows it to only  5 6 and 16.

Posted by Sachin on 2005-03-05 16:27:23