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..."

It seems that we need to make a lot of assumptions.  Could this be her third marriage.  Could she be 90.  Most seemed to range the children to about 20.  They could be older.  I do not poseess the math knowledge to go further, but it seems it may open up greater possibilities.  Also guests at an anniversary are usually pretty close to the hostess, so most would probably know the childrens ages.  And how many people have a party with guests for their anniversaries, especially 'odd' anniversaries like 18 (not even/odd, common/odd).  Sorry I did not much like this problem.  But everyone is different.  There are many problems here I do not like. (Especially the ones I am not smart enough to solve.)

Posted by john on 2005-03-09 17:18:08