Blondes (like me)

[BMAD]

Two blondes are sitting in a street cafe, talking about the children. One says that she has three daughters. The product of their ages equals 36 and the sum of the ages coincides with the number of the house across the street. The second blonde replies that this information is not enough to figure out the age of each child. The first agrees and adds that the oldest daughter has the beautiful blue eyes. Then the second solves the puzzle.

What happened?

[sabjiwala]

Product of the ages is 36. So if you look at the factors of 36 only two combinations are such whose sum is equal i.e. 9,2,2 and 6,6,1 (one mentioned that sum of the ages coincides with the number of the house across the street) and this made it unsolvable at this point. Now given that the oldest daughter has beautiful blue eyes or simply that the oldest daughter exists, the answer is 9,2,2.

Edited March 10, 2013 by sabjiwala

[Debasis]

Product of the ages is 36. So if you look at the factors of 36 only two combinations are such whose sum is equal i.e. 9,2,2 and 6,6,1 (one mentioned that sum of the ages coincides with the number of the house across the street) and this made it unsolvable at this point. Now given that the oldest daughter has beautiful blue eyes or simply that the oldest daughter exists, the answer is 9,2,2.

what about 2,3 and 6??

[sabjiwala]

Product of the ages is 36. So if you look at the factors of 36 only two combinations are such whose sum is equal i.e. 9,2,2 and 6,6,1 (one mentioned that sum of the ages coincides with the number of the house across the street) and this made it unsolvable at this point. Now given that the oldest daughter has beautiful blue eyes or simply that the oldest daughter exists, the answer is 9,2,2.

what about 2,3 and 6??

There is no other pair with the same sum (i.e.11), and hence second should have been able to tell the age just after knowing the number on the house across the street, whereas in case of 9,2,2 and 6,6,1 the sum is 13 for both, thus requiring the extra hint of the existence of an oldest.