Usenet Newsgroups : rec.puzzles Hall of FameThe rec.puzzles Hall of Fame is a compilation of over 500 of the most popular puzzles that have been posted and discussed in the rec.puzzles newsgroup. In most cases a detailed solution has been provided. Many of these puzzles also appear in Braingle's own collection. |
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A man walks into a bar, orders a drink, and starts chatting with the bartender. After a while, he learns that the bartender has three children. "How old are your children?" he asks. "Well," replies the bartender, "the product of their ages is 72." The man thinks for a moment and then says, "that's not enough information." "All right," continues the bartender, "if you go outside and look at the building number posted over the door to the bar, you'll see the sum of the ages." The man steps outside, and after a few moments he reenters and declares, "Still not enough!" The bartender smiles and says, "My youngest just loves strawberry ice cream." How old are the children? In a variant of the problem, it is the oldest child that likes ice cream. Then either the product is 36 or the sum of the ages is 13 and the product of the ages is the number posted over the door. Then how old are they?
Solution
