OK, Scott:
The Visitor is age 40.
Tortoise a is 150.
Tortoise b is 7.
Tortoise c is 3.
Do we win valuable web points for this?
David F. Darby
----------
> From: Scott Gardner <gardner7@pilot.infi.net>
> To: mgs@autox.team.net
> Subject: A math puzzle this time...
> Date: Sunday, 25 January, 1998 6:29 PM
>
> Here's a math puzzle for a change of pace. No fair writing a
> computer program to brute-force the answer out--it shouldn't take
> more than a pencil, paper, and about 20 minutes.
> Scott
>
>
> On a fine sunny afternoon at the zoo, a visitor was admiring the three
> giant tortoises snoozing in the sun. "Did you know that these
> tortoises can live up to 150 years?" asked a zookeeper.
>
> "No," replied the visitor. "How old are these?"
>
> "That would be too easy!" exclaimed the zookeeper. "How old are you?"
>
> When the visitor told him, he thought for a moment, then said "The sum
> of their ages is four times your age, and the product of their ages is
> 3150."
>
> The visitor went and sat down on a park bench, and calculated for a
> bit. Coming back to where the zookeeper was still puttering around,
> she said, "You didn't give me enough information."
>
> "Well," said the zookeeper, "only one of the tortoises is older than
> you."
>
> "Aha!" cried the visitor. "Then I know how old they are."
>
> How old are the tortoises, and how old is the visitor? Note: All of
> the ages are integers. (No one in the puzzle is 23.47546 years old,
> or anything like that...)
>
>
> Scott
> Scott Gardner
> gardner@lwcomm.com
> www.lwcomm.com/~gardner
|