How old are they?

Evo

Two postmen meet on their routes and they start talking.

Postman A says: "I know you have 3 sons, how old are they?"

Postman B says: "If you take their ages in years, and multiply them together, the result is your age."

A: "That's not enough info"

B: "The sum of the 3 numbers equals the number of windows in that
building over there."

A: "Hmm... that's still not enough."

B: "My middle son is red-haired."

A: "Ah, now I see!"

How old are the 3 sons?

The Bob

Evo is there something about redheads that we should know but I do not like a redhead is born 3 years after the previous child or something?

Cheers

The Bob (2004 ©)

vikasj007

apart from something about redhead, i think u should check the question again and see if their is something else which is missing, i mean any numerical value or anything else which you have missed.

The Bob

Well we do not know the age of Postman A and we cannot assume the amount of windows because the building could have been a shed or a house or even a skyscrap for what we know.

Must be the redheaded child that gives it all.

The Bob (2004 ©)

chroot

Evo, I believe the dissenters here are correct. I have encountered this puzzle before, and I believe the postman's age is required for a solution.

- Warren

Monique

Actually no more information is required, the middle red-haired clue should get you started towards a solution! (this question will be easier for biology people )

Gokul43201

All I can glean from that clue is that a,b,c are all distinct - no two are of the same age.

The first clue tells me that at least one of a,b,c is non-prime.

The Bob

Middle? Redheaded? This means you know it, right Monique? More hints please.

The Bob (2004 ©)

Njorl

I think I have it. If you don't want to see the answer, skip my post.









































Break the postman's age down to prime factorization. Construct the children's ages from those prime numbers. Each child's age is a product of 0 or more of those numbers (0 prime factors means the child is age 1). Go through all permutations until you find one that fits the logic. You can actulaly eliminate whole catagories of possibilities with general notation.

You can logically eliminate the postman's age being:
prime
a prime squared
the product of 2 primes
a prime cubed
a prime squared times a prime
the product of 3 different primes
a prime cubed times a prime

So, the prime factorization has at least 4 prime factors, and does not take the form "aaab". (a and b are prime numbers)

I tried "aabb" and could not logically eliminate it, but found no logical solutions for a postman 225 years or younger.(edit-you can eliminate this logically, rather than by exhaustion. Just figured it out.)

Trying "aabc" yields a possible solution.

From the logical conditions, you get an equation:

a+a+bc=a^2+b+c, where a,b,c are prime.

The children are aged a^2, b and c. Until the "middle" child clue is given, the possibility remains that they are aged a,a and bc.

Using a=3, b=5 and c=2 yields a possible answer.

Children are 9, 5 and 2, the postman is 90.

There might be other possible solutions for postman of Methuselah's age, but I discounted them.

Njorl

The Bob

Not to be mean but what about the redheaded child. That was clearly the give away for the postman. Were does it feature in your puzzle?

The Bob (2004 ©)

Njorl

The redhead is a red herring. The real clue is that there is a middle child. Also, the existance of the fact that there is a middle child is sufficient to clarify a situation from multiple possibilities to one possibility.

The 90 year old postman knew that the sum of the children's ages was 16, and the product of the ages was 90. This meant:

The children could be 3,3 and 10 or 2,5 and 9.

When he learned that there was a middle child, he eliminated the first possibility.

Njorl

The Bob

Oh ok. I get it. So it could be lots of different numbers? Quality.

Cheers

The Bob (2004 ©)

Monique

Sorry Njorl, I don't think that answer is correct.. however clever the reasoning :)

How does your reasoning factor in the coming from multiple answers to a single one?

The Bob

What does the redhead have to do with it?

The Bob (2004 ©)

Monique

It was the fact that there was a middle child that made it possible for the postman to know the ages of the children. This clue implies two things and Njorl got both of them.

1. Since there is a middle child: there are not twins.
2. The postman must've been doubting between different ages and the fact that there are no twins solved it for him. It is from this fact that you can deduce a mathematical reasoning that will allow you to solve the puzzle without knowing the age of the other postman (since it WAS required for the postman to know the age of the other postman).

Gokul43201

I think it is A correct answer. The multiple answers come from 3+3+10=2+5+9=16. The middle redhead resolves this.

Perhaps you mean "there is a smaller solution" ?

The only form I can think of is "aaac". This violates Njorl's last eliminated type...but I think he's wrong to eliminate this - the others are okay. Perhaps he used the redhead criterion before the sum degeneracy criterion ?

Let's see...

Evo

Whoa Monique is brilliant!!!

The red headed middle child is the key to finding the mathematical formula, no additional information is necessary to determine the correct ages.

There are not multiple correct answers (well as long as we assume a normal lifespan for the postman and consider normal retirement age.)

Njorl, nope, sorry, but I'm impressed!

Yes, you are on the right track!