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From: colin@pdn.UUCP (Colin Kendall)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Beyond Mr.P & Mr.S.
Message-ID: <1249@pdn.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 4-Sep-87 08:37:59 EDT
Article-I.D.: pdn.1249
Posted: Fri Sep  4 08:37:59 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 5-Sep-87 18:01:56 EDT
References: <668@xn.LL.MIT.EDU# <1064@homxc.UUCP> <1065@homxc.UUCP> <1303@houdi.UUCP>
Organization: Paradyne Corporation, Largo, Florida
Lines: 28

In article <1303@houdi.UUCP#, marty1@houdi.UUCP (M.BRILLIANT) writes:
# In article <1238@pdn.UUCP>, colin@pdn.UUCP (Colin Kendall) writes:
# > If the ages of the daughters are 1, 2, and 10, she has an oldest
# > daughter. The various solvers seem to have made the 
# > assumption that the other two daughters are the same age.
# 
# Only one solver made that incorrect assumption, in his first posting.

Agreed.

# Instead, our key clue is that the salesman needed the clue that there
# was an oldest daughter, and not two oldest daughters the same age.
# 
# Your proposed solution is too easy, because then the salesman would not
# have needed that clue.  The house number (product of the ages) would be
# 20, which can be uniquely decomposed into three factors whose sum is 13.
1,2,10 was not a proposed solution, just an example. I intended to
convey that the solution was impossible.

After reviewing all the related postings more carefully, I see.
The faulty assumption that *all* the solvers made was that the
salesman knew the house number. I didn't make that one.

-- 
Colin Kendall				Paradyne Corporation
{gatech,akgua}!usfvax2!pdn!colin	Mail stop LF-207
Phone: (813) 530-8697			8550 Ulmerton Road, PO Box 2826
					Largo, FL  33294-2826