[Guest]

I have been debating this question with my Mother in Law for a few weeks now. She is about to turn 61 and I am currently 30; so at this moment she is double my age. My question to her is will she ever be double my age again? She says no but I am thinking yes. Saying for instance if we both lived forever wouldn’t there be a time where she would be double my age again? And if not why? How come at one time she could be double my age but then not at any other time in the future be double my age? What value is constant and value is variable? I was born Nov. 05 1980 and she was born Oct. 06 1950.

Edited October 10, 2011 by needspractice

[pdqkemp]

OK....tried to use the spoiler and it didn't work.

Sorry folks....I know the answer, too, so if you don't want to read it, scroll quickly past the Asteriks*****

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If she's "about to be" 61, that means she's still 60. Obviously that's how come you can say she's "double" your age. You aren't speaking litterally, of course - You're just saying that 60 is double 30, so that's the "double" you're talking about.

If you recently turned 30, and she's just about to turn 61, that means when you turn 31, she'll be just about to turn 62. That will mean she WILL BE 62 at least for some period of time when you ARE 31. That will be the only other time she will ever be "double" your age. From then on out, you just creep closer and closer to being her age!

***OK, I didn't see that you actually added dates to this. Of course this answer all has to do with IF you had asked this about 4 days ago BEFORE she actually turned 61. (Now she IS 61.)

Before she turned 61, she was 60 and you were 30. Double (although not EXACTLY double.) Now she turned 61 and you're still 30. Not double. Soon you'll be 31 and she'll still be 61. Still not double.

But NEXT YEAR, AFTER October 6th, she will be 62 for about a month while YOU are still just 31. That number is once again double.

Again - It's not EXACTLY double. She will only be EXACTLY double ONE TIME in your entire lifetime. That has already past. (I'm too tired to figure out the exact date.)

Edited October 10, 2011 by pdqkemp

[Guest]

To add to pdqkemp's explanation:

The date of exact doubling of age was December 6. 2010. At this time you are 30 years 31 days old and she is 60 years and 61 days old. I derived this by finding the number of days between your birth and hers = 10988. Now add this number of days to your birth and we get the results. I know someone is going to question this since 61 days is not twice 31 days. This occurred because there exists one less leap year since you were born than between your birth and hers. That is because the turn of the century, though it falls on the 4 year interval, is not a leap year.

pdqkemp, probably the reason the spoiler failed to work was the omission of spoiler title. A minor flaw in the formatting program prevents spoilers from displaying correctly if the title is omitted.

[Guest]

An "exact" double can only exist once. But if you are only looking at the "year" only, then from 5 November 2010 to 6 October 2010 you will be 30 and she will be 60. She turns 61 on 6 October 2011, so from then you are no longer half her age. You turn 31 on 5 November 2011. 6 October 2012 she turns 62, and you will be "half her age" again till 5 November 2012 when you turn 62.

From here, the size in the difference of your ages will decrease below 50% exponentially as you age for the rest of your eternal lives. 30 / 60 = 50%, so 50% difference but 230 / 260 = 88.5%, so 11.5% difference.

The difference in age, 30 (or 31 if you will), remains constant, your age, and your mother in laws age are ever increasing.

[Guest]

haha.. i figured this one out too

[Guest]

Where is your answer Y?

Well here is one.

First time, between Nov 05, 2010 and Oct 05, 2011, the subject is 30 yrs and his mother-in-law 60 years old. Between Oct 06, 2012 and Nov 04, 2012, again the subject will be 31 yrs and his mother-in-law, 62 years.

Edited October 11, 2011 by Mukul Verma

[Guest]

You both age at the same rate. one year each year. right.

If you are using just your age in years you'll only be half her age once because for example you are 30 she is 60 so each year you add ONE year to both your ages. for you to be half her age again she'd have to age at a faster rate than you each year.

******answer : YOU AGE AT THE SAME RATE

@MUKUL VERMA although your answer seems correct at first look..

You use years in the first part and days in the second so for her to half her age you have to decide what you are using to determain it. Either each ages by days or by years. Its Harder to explain because of their birthdays being different sorry I cannot think of a better way to explain it right now.

[Guest]

to add to my earlier post

for example

in 2010 you are 30 she is 60

in 2011 you are 31 she is 61

and so forth

even though you both change ages in a year you can only use one age for each year. Otherwise you'd have to use days to calculate when exactly you were half her age.

EIther way it is only possible to be EXACTLY half someones, who is older than you, age.