General Discussions

**OmuCuSucu** · 03:42 PM

i'm just curious if someone can give me a nice mathematical solution to this. (there is one solution)

here it is

Quote:

Problem: The mother is 21 years older then her child, in 6 years the mother will be 5 times older then her child.
Question: where is the father?

**vangogh** · 02-26-2007, 07:09 PM

age of mom = x
age child = y

x = y +21
x + 6 = 5(y + 6)
x + 6 = 5y + 30
x = 5y +24

y + 21 = 5y + 24
-3 = 4y

Either I've done the algebra wrong above, you have the question worded wrong or the child hasn't been born yet so there is no father.

The one place where I may be misunderstanding the question is in 6 years will mom be 5 times as old as the child is right now or 5 times as old as the child will be in 6 years. I assumed 5 times as old as the child in 6 years.

**stOx** · 02-26-2007, 11:19 PM

Wouldn't the child be -0.75 of a year old right now, Which is 9 months, Which i guess would mean the father is currently ontop of the mother.

**jito** · 02-27-2007, 12:46 AM

Age of son: x,
Age of Mom:x+21
then the equation:
5(x+6)=x+27
=>x=-3/4
That's - 0.75.
Seems stOx is right

.

**vangogh** · 02-27-2007, 01:59 AM

Matt I think you took the final step and made the connection I missed. I got the mathematical proof right, but missed the obvious conclusion. Here I was just now in another post talking about being creative and thinking outside the box and I come here to find I was thinking too literal.

**OmuCuSucu** · 02-27-2007, 12:27 PM

hehe. faster then expected

nice

**vangogh** · 02-27-2007, 12:35 PM

Got any more? That was fun.

**OmuCuSucu** · 02-27-2007, 12:37 PM

actually i don't ... only remembered this one. was the coolest i had anyway

**vangogh** · 02-27-2007, 12:55 PM

It is pretty cool. I'm kicking myself for not making that last connection though. I was kind of there, but didn't make the final jump. I was hoping you had another so I could redeem myself.

**stOx** · 03-03-2007, 11:07 AM

I only got it because of the sums you done steve, We don't do algebra in school over here so i had little chance of figuring the numbers out.

Here's one for you. It's not mathematical though.

A ship starts is journey it Portsmouth, England, at 2:34 pm, It circumnavigates the earth in 4 months finishing its journey exactly where it started.

What part of the ship travelled the furthest distance?

**vangogh** · 03-03-2007, 01:49 PM

My first thought is to say that if the ship finished exactly where it started then every part of the ship traveled the same distance.

My other thought is there is some moving part on the ship that is traveling within the ship while the overall ship itself is moving, but without details of the ship I wouldn't know which part. Maybe the captain of the ship.

I'm assuming both of the above are wrong though so I'll have to think about it.

**stOx** · 03-03-2007, 01:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vangogh

My other thought is there is some moving part on the ship that is traveling within the ship while the overall ship itself is moving, but without details of the ship I wouldn't know which part. Maybe the captain of the ship..

I forgot to mention, It's a sail ship. And for the sake of argument, Let's say it's unmanned

**vangogh** · 03-03-2007, 02:01 PM

Then I think my second thought is the right one and the sails traveled the furthest since they travel the same distance as the other parts of the ship in circumnavigating and also travel up and down and any other way in which a sail might move.

**Insensus** · 03-03-2007, 02:23 PM

I think the highest point of the boat travels the furthest.
This has a little bit larger distance from the centre of the earth than the other parts of the boat.
Therefore it travels a longer distance.

Regards,
Insensus

**stOx** · 03-03-2007, 02:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Insensus

I think the highest point of the boat travels the furthest.

Yup, It's the top of the mast.

**Insensus** · 03-03-2007, 02:39 PM

Yay! ^_^

**vangogh** · 03-03-2007, 02:46 PM

Good call. I thought I had it, but you nailed it.

**OmuCuSucu** · 03-03-2007, 05:11 PM

nice one. wouldn't have guessed

got more?

**Insensus** · 04:39 AM

I got one for ya.
Look at the next image:

Each character is wearing a hat and has his eyes pointing to the left.
The bar you see between numbers 1 and 2 is a wall. They can't see through this wall.
Because they are all looking in one direction they can only see a certain amount of persons.
Number 4 can see 3 and 2. Number 3 can only see number 2, and numbers 1 and 2 can't see anything.
The hats they wear come in two different colors: Black and White.
This is not given in the image because it's what you need to solve.
Which person always knows what color hat he's wearing?

Awnsers with explanation!

Note: Sizes of hats, heads, bodies etc. don't matter!

**OmuCuSucu** · 03-04-2007, 05:33 AM

lol. that beats me

i hope someone can answer it ... i'm a bit curious now

btw Insensus ... nice drawing :P