Two MIT math graduates bump into each other at Fairway on the upper west side. They hadn't seen each other in over 20 years.
The first grad says to the second: "how have you been?"
Second: "Great! I got married and I have three daughters now"
First: "Really? how old are they?"
Second: "Well, the product of their ages is 72, and the sum of their ages is the same as the number on that building over there.."
First: "Right, ok.. oh wait.. hmmmm.., I still don't know"
second: "Oh sorry, the oldest one just started to play the piano"
First: "Wonderful! my oldest is the same age!"
The first grad says to the second: "how have you been?"
Second: "Great! I got married and I have three daughters now"
First: "Really? how old are they?"
Second: "Well, the product of their ages is 72, and the sum of their ages is the same as the number on that building over there.."
First: "Right, ok.. oh wait.. hmmmm.., I still don't know"
second: "Oh sorry, the oldest one just started to play the piano"
First: "Wonderful! my oldest is the same age!"
Problem: How old are the daughters?
Comments
2, 3, 12
3, 4, 6
1, 3, 24
1, 1, 72 ( not likely )
2, 2, 18
2, 4, 9
3, 3, 8
I feel like we're missing some clues?!?!
Yep. I'm definitely missing something, possibly the address of the building on the upper west side.
You`ll see that you have 2 sets with wher e the numbers add up to the same "house number" because if it was any other the solution would be straightforward
If you have lived in new york, you would know that manhattan as about 12 avenues and that they follow a specific numbering system where the avenue or street number is one of the first one or two digits.
So I wanted to be sure where exactly they were standing. I did a google map search for Fairwar Market, New york. I came up with couple of locations on upper west side. Taken down the addresses. Downloaded Google Earth (http://earth.google.com) and virtually navigated the neighborhoods of both Fairway markets and found a building with 12 on it. So the answer is 12, 6, 1.
Note: I was the one who gave interview with M$. I was not selected because I was using Google's tools!! Damn M$. :-)
1 1 72 74
1 2 36 39
1 3 24 28
1 4 18 23
1 6 12 19
1 8 9 18
2 2 18 22
2 3 12 17
2 4 9 15
2 6 6 14
3 3 8 14
3 4 6 13
The sum of the ages add up to a building number which still confuses the person. So how could that be, well the building number must be sum we get twice "14". The next part says, "My oldest one" indicating that their is only one oldest. Therefore, the the only combo that would work is 3,3,8.