How about: Tortoises are 5, 9 & 70; visitor is 21?
Bud Krueger
52TD
Scott Gardner wrote:
> 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
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