School Inspector Puzzle

[guru]

The Education Authority of Nakhon Bleaton were worried about a particular family who had 3 children and did not send any of them to school.

An inspector was sent to the family’s house to find out how old the children were.

The inspector went to the house and knocked on the front door enquiring about their ages.

A rather scruffy, red faced and aggressive man came to the door.

“No I will not tell you how old they are! But I will tell you that the sum of their ages is 13” and rudely slams the door.

The inspector thought for a moment and decided to knock again.

“ No I will not tell you how old they are! But the product of their ages is equal to the number of the house next door!”

The inspector still not happy went away to have a think but had to return for a third time.

“Alright!!” came the aggressive reply “The eldest child has ginger hair!”

The inspector left happily to file his report.

How old are the 3 children?

[Grover]

6, 4 and 3

[kayo]

yeah okay...

sum = 6+4+3 = 27

product = 6*4*3 = 72

eldest ginger hair...

what? How ? neighbour housenumber wot??'

[Little Black Duck]

yeah okay...

sum = 6+4+3 = 27

product = 6*4*3 = 72

eldest ginger hair...

what? How ? neighbour housenumber wot??'

Wabbit,Wabbit,Wabbit....I said you were good at Multipication not Addition...

[John_Betong]

Hi Guru,

I liked the question and was surprised that their is only one unique answer that satisfies all three questions.

Cheers,

John_Betong

[guru]

6 4 3 - wrong. Sorry.

Yes there is only one answer as being a busy school inspector he is not going to ask the unfriendly father more times than he has to.

So the 3 times he asks for information is the minimum in order to arrive at the correct answer.

The inspector is not blind so he can see the number of the house next door.

You cant do it in your head - unless youre Einstein- so you will need a pen and paper.

Saying that a 15 year old student of mine worked it out (with paper) but he is unusually bright for his age.

[Grover]

ok, I guess it is something to do with algebra like x + y + z = 13; x X y X z = house + 2 etc...

using substitution. am I on the right track ?

what about the ginger hair ?

Edited December 12, 2006 by Grover

[Soju]

2, 2, and 9

[guru]

2, 2, and 9

Well done Soju - correct.

Grover - no complex algebra required at all and no guesses should be made at the street numbering system.

Just looking at the different combinations that make 13 and the products of those combinations will lead you on the right track.

[Soju]

Nice puzzle there, Grover. Didn't take long to work out, but did require a moment of serious thought, especially if you get hung up on the ginger hair part. Got any more puzzles?

[Robski]

It's tooooooo hard!

[Grover]

give us another clue plz.

[Soju]

give us another clue plz.

Make a list of all possible ages of 3 children which add up to 13. But you can eliminate all combinations which have an age of zero, because if you multiply anything by zero the result is zero, which would not be a valid address. Write down the product (multiply the three numbers together) along with each combination. Something like this:

1*1*11 = 11

1*2*10 = 20

1*3*9 = 27

And so forth. Once you complete the list, look at the product column. The important thing is that the second clue (that the product was the address of the house next door) wasn't enough for the inspector to know the age of the three children without the third clue.

[Grover]

ahhh got it. I'd have no chance without those clues. I know what you mean about that moment of serious thought. It is the connection.

Quite a good little puzzle

Edited December 13, 2006 by Grover

[libya 115]

I have always liked this puzzle, which can be told in many different ways, I used to like the answer to the 3rd question to be 'My eldest son was born with six toes', which really puts a spanner in the works.

However the number 36 is quite a magical number, the complete factorisation being 2*2*3*3

Interesting also is that adding together the numbers 1 through to 36 yields 666

[Soju]

I have always liked this puzzle, which can be told in many different ways, I used to like the answer to the 3rd question to be 'My eldest son was born with six toes', which really puts a spanner in the works.

However the number 36 is quite a magical number, the complete factorisation being 2*2*3*3

Interesting also is that adding together the numbers 1 through to 36 yields 666

Libya, what is it with you and the number 666? Didn't you just make your 666'th post and some comments about that, and what's so special about number 115? Enquiring minds want to know.

[Grover]

I have always liked this puzzle, which can be told in many different ways, I used to like the answer to the 3rd question to be 'My eldest son was born with six toes', which really puts a spanner in the works.

However the number 36 is quite a magical number, the complete factorisation being 2*2*3*3

Interesting also is that adding together the numbers 1 through to 36 yields 666

Libya, what is it with you and the number 666? Didn't you just make your 666'th post and some comments about that, and what's so special about number 115? Enquiring minds want to know.

Soju, I can answer this question for you instead of Libya. But, I won't. I will return the favour and give you a clue...

Libya's avatar is not him, it is a man called Aliester Crowley. Google for him and you will have the anwer about 666.

[Niloc]

Three men walk into a hotel and ask for a room. The room clerk gives them a key and asks for $30 ($10 each). The men go up to their room and the desk clerk realises he charged them too much so he call over the lift boy and gives him $5 to take up to the three me,

On the way up in the lift the boy thinks to himself 'they don't know how much they are getting ' and pockets $2.

He gets to the room and gives them the remaining $3, $1 each....

Now the men have only paid $9 each, 3 nines = 27, $2 the lift boy has got makes it $29, where is the other $1??

Edited December 16, 2006 by Niloc

[suegha]

Three men walk into a hotel and ask for a room. The room clerk gives them a key and asks for $30 ($10 each). The men go up to their room and the desk clerk realises he charged them too much so he call over the lift boy and gives him $5 to take up to the three me,

On the way up in the lift the boy thinks to himself 'they don't know how much they are getting ' and pockets $2.

He gets to the room and gives them the remaining $3, $1 each....

Now the men have only paid $9 each, 3 nines = 27, $2 the lift boy has got makes it $29, where is the other $1??

You haven't thought this through, have you?