The Insurance Salesman
An insurance salesman walk up to house and knocks on the door. A woman answers, and he asks her how many children she has and how old they are. She says I will give you a hint. If you multiply the 3 children’s ages, you get 36. He says this is not enough information. So she gives a him 2nd hint. If you add up the children’s ages, the sum is the number on the house next door. He goes next door and looks at the house number and says this is still not enough information. So she says she’ll give him one last hint which is that her oldest of the 3 children plays the piano.
Three numbers that have a product of 36:
36, 1, 1 (sum = 38)
18, 2, 1 (sum = 21)
12, 3, 1 (sum = 16)
9, 4, 1 (sum = 14)
9, 2, 2 (sum = 13)
6, 6, 1 (sum = 13)
6, 3, 2 (sum = 11)
4, 3, 3 (sum = 10)
It says that the next door’s house number was not enough information, therefore meaning that there has to be two same numbers. Those lead to 9, 2, 2 and 6, 6, 1. Also, it says that there is an OLDEST child, therefore the age of the chidren are: 9, 2 and 2.
Wow, well done Yeseo!
Thanks Catherine!
Also, some of these weren’t “house numbers”. This is why I didn’t choose 6,6,1 and 36, 1, 1.
Very very impressive Yeseo!
You are correct! The answer is 9, 2, 2! What fantastic systematic working out. That is 10 house points for Griffins! Horray!
There are 36 black keys on a piano, but I don’t know if this links to anything.