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Incredible, but solvable (Posted on 2015-10-30) Difficulty: 4 of 5
A puzzle by Princeton mathematician John Horton Conway:

Last night I sat behind two wizards on a bus, and overheard the following:

A: I have a positive integral number of children, whose ages are positive integers, the sum of which is the number of this bus, while the product is my own age.
B: How interesting! Perhaps if you told me your age and the number of your children, I could work out their individual ages?
A: No.
B: Aha! AT LAST I know how old you are!

Rem: Taking in account the fatherhood limitations, this is uniquely solvable.

No Solution Yet Submitted by Ady TZIDON    
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Comments: ( Back to comment list | You must be logged in to post comments.)
re: computer aided solution | Comment 4 of 13 |
(In reply to computer aided solution by Charlie)

Nicely done, Charlie!


Based on reading the problem, I guessed that the age was either 36 or 48, and 3 or 4 or 5 children (most likely 4), but I did not have time yet to work out a solution.  

By the way, you could have limited your program to a number of children from 3 to 9, as it can never be two.  If there are only 2 children, their ages can always be worked out when their product and sum is known.

  Posted by Steve Herman on 2015-10-30 17:09:11
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