56 replies to this topic

[Benson]

Not unless you assume the question asks the ages in those units for which the multiples are integral -- minutes, seconds.
You obviously did not assume that -- years are the only units mentioned in your answer.

There's no need. You can still use Year to count in minutes, seconds or even to nano seconds. For example, 2.5 years.

Precision or looseness aside, it's nice to be consistent.

Yes, that's true. So, that "66" is pretty precision, therefore, we should precisely count their birth "time".

[diamnds]

Maybe 24 and 42 the father had his son when he was 18.

[Emapher]

first response was 11-55 which would work except for the whole Father-AB and Son-BA - thing

So im going with 60-6!



Right?

[brhan]

Maybe 24 and 42 the father had his son when he was 18.

Nope ... 24 is not multiple of 42. Try again ...

[Morelessorother]

Hi there! This is my first post. Unfortunately I do not have the answer, but I would like to give some input.

06 and 60 isn't a bad idea, although personally I would not count it because I do not think that the age of 6 can really be called "zero six". Although in puzzles you never know!

Anyway, if it weren't for the pesky condition that the age of the father has to be a multiple of the age of the son then other answers would be:
Father 51 and son 15 or father 42 and son 24 (answer also given by diamnds).
Reversals are fine, sums are fine, but damn that multiple condition!

Having done way too much maths today due to this puzzle I would now deem it very likely that the answer must be given in the form of the number of months, not years. Am I correct or would it be too easy to tell?
Would anybody care to do the calculations using months as a new angle? (Using months as the next possible unit is far more likely than nano seconds...) I've been working at it for almost an hour now and the closest I got was the father being 591 months (49,25 years) old and the son being 195 months (16,25 years) old, together 65,5 years old (786 months).

[dannchen]

The easiest way to look at this is to consider a number 'xy' where x is the tens digit and y the units digit. The number is therfore equal to 10x+y. In this example, you can see that since one number/age is the other one backwards, they add to give 10x+y+10y+x=11(x+y). So:

11(x+y)=66
(x+y)=6

Simple trial and error then means that if 'xy' is a multiple of 'yx' then the numbers must be 06 and 60 or 33 and 33. The latter is clearly not right for a father and son, so the father must be 60 and the son 06

[ssxm]

33 and 33 is correct assuming the father is dead lol i r the win

[bonanova]

33 and 33 is correct assuming the father is dead lol i r the win

What a morbid path to a cheap answer.
I love it!

[unreality]

Yep I think that was what we first said

*edit* I checked, writersblock said 60 and 6, then me and cpotting said 33 and 33 cuz it said "father and son" it doesn't require that the father is the father of the son

[roolstar]

Having a son at 54??

Not sure if I would do that... Made me think about my life....


Anyhow, age seems to be always an approximation and never exact. You are 18 years old for 364 days!
And in all preceding similar puzzles, this was the assumption hidden in the OP.

So I'm not sure we should go into semesters or trimesters or months or days or weeks or hours or minutes or seconds or horoscope ...