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From: lewisd@homxc.UUCP (D.LEWIS)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Beyond Mr.P & Mr.S.
Message-ID: <1064@homxc.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 31-Aug-87 16:06:44 EDT
Article-I.D.: homxc.1064
Posted: Mon Aug 31 16:06:44 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 4-Sep-87 07:22:03 EDT
References: <668@xn.LL.MIT.EDU>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Holmdel
Lines: 38
Summary: an answer Mr. P and Mr. S , version 2

In article <668@xn.LL.MIT.EDU>, vanhove@XN.LL.MIT.EDU (Patrick Van Hove) writes:
> 
> I had a somewhat different story of the same type.
> 
> mother: Before you go any further, I just want to see if you are really
> 	as much >mister-smart< as you pretend. Let's see. 
> 	My husband noticed a while ago that since the last birthday, 
> 	the product of the ages of my three daughters is exactly 
> 	the number on our house. If I add that the sum of their ages
> 	is 13, can you figure out how old they are?
> 
>  (Note: 
>   	integer ages;
> 	integer house-numbers;)
(edited - mother refers to "oldest daughter") 
> salesman:
> 	Your oldest daughter? Well then, I think I know the answer now:
> 	their ages are >CENSORED<, >CENSORED< and >CENSORED<.
> 

The key is noticing that there must be only a single answer of the
form n,n,n+p for ages.  The solution, then is in listing out the possibilities:
  n n n+p  product
  ================
  1 1 11   11
  2 2 9    36
  3 3 7    42
  4 4 5    80
  5 5 3    75
  6 6 1    36
So, because the salesman couldn't tell the difference immediately but was
able to after he was told that there was a single oldest daughter, we
know that the house number is 36 and that the daughters are 2, 2, and 9.
 
-- 

David B. Lewis    {ihnp4!}homxc!lewisd
201-615-5306 Eastern Time, Days.