Two Professors meet after many years. They had gone to school together, you know.
Prof. Wise asked Prof. Wink about her family and she said that she had a lovely husband [smile] and three lovely children.
"How old are the children?" asked Prof. Wise.
"Well," said Prof. Wink, "if we agree only to consider ages in nearest whole years, then the product of their ages is 36."
Seeing that his old friend was still her same pedantic self, Prof. Wise thought just briefly before saying "Well, clearly that is not enough information."
Prof. Wink then told Prof. Wise that the sum of her childern's ages was coincidentally the same as the address on Genius street where she used to defeat him regularly at the chess club.
Prof. Wise this time thought a bit longer but admitted that he was still stumped.
Prof. Wink then admitted that her oldest child much preferred Strawberry malts.
Prof. Wink felt quite self-satisfied...that is until Prof. Wise told her the ages of her children almost immediately.
How old were they?
Solution to Problem:
The ages of the three children are 2, 2, and 9.
After Prof. Wink told Prof. Wise that the sum of her childrens' ages was the same as the address on Genius street, Prof. Wise made a list of possible sums of three numbers (three children) that add to the number of the address and whose product was 36.
Since that still was not enough information, it meant that at least two sums were the same. In the table below are all the possible factors of 36 and their sums:
| Factor | Factor | Factor | Sum |
| 1 | 1 | 36 | 38 |
| 1 | 2 | 18 | 21 |
| 1 | 3 | 12 | 16 |
| 1 | 4 | 9 | 14 |
| 1 | 6 | 6 | 13 |
| 2 | 2 | 9 | 13 |
| 2 | 3 | 6 | 11 |
| 3 | 3 | 4 | 10 |
From the table, we can conclude that the address of the chess club
was 13 Genius Street. I thought about making that the question instead
of the childrens' ages.
The final clue that "the oldest child much preferred
Strawberry malts" gives the information that there is an oldest child.
Thus the only correct answer would have to be 2, 2, and 9 since the other
sum of 13 (1, 6, and 6) does not yield an "oldest child."
Of course, "strawberry malts" and "where they played chess" are not at
all important and can be replaced by anything.
Correctly solved by:
| 1. Bob Hearn | Winchester, Virginia |
| 2. Walt Arrison | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| 3. Keith Mealy | Cincinnati, Ohio |
| 4. George Gaither | Winchester, Virginia |
| 5. Chip Schweikarth | Winchester, Virginia |
| 6. David Powell | Winchester, Virginia |
| 7. Evelyne Stalzer | New Jersey |
| 8. Kirstine Wynn | Winchester, Virginia |
| 9. Erin McGinnis | Winchester, Virginia |