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Re: A math puzzle this time...

To: "Scott Gardner" <gardner7@pilot.infi.net>, <mgs@Autox.Team.Net>
Subject: Re: A math puzzle this time...
From: "David F. Darby" <darby@tri-lakes.net>
Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 20:49:27 -0600
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

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