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Solution. We have to find three whole numbers that, when multiplied together, make 36, There are just eight possibilities: 1-1-36, 1-2-18, 1-3-12, 1-4-9, 1-6-6, 2-2-9, 2-3-6, 3-3-4. If you add up the numbers in each triplet, you get: 38, 21, 16, 14, 13, 13, 11, 10. Now, when the second woman was told that the ages added up to her address, she still didn't know the answers. Her address must therefore be 13. If it had been one of the other numbers - 38, 21, 16, 14, 11, or 10 - she would have been able to pin down the triplet. Only with 13 can she not do this, because two triplets add up to 13: 1-6-6 and 2-2-9. However, once the neighbor says: "The oldest...," she knows it must be 2-2-9, since if the kids' ages are 1-6-6, there is no oldest! Answer: the children are aged 2, 2, and 9.

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15y ago

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