Can you solve this Epic question?
A great mathematician claims to solve any problem posed to him.One day he visits a friend of his who challenges him to determine his children's ages using the following hints:
1)No. of children =3
2)Product of their ages=36.
3)Sum of their ages=equal to the friend's house no
After this the mathematician pleads for just one more hint and claims to solve it this time therefore- hint no.4) the colour of eyes of his youngest son is blue upon hearing this he breaks out the correct answer. Can you find it?
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Hint 1 and Hint 2 allow us to cancel ( 1 , 2 , 8 ) as the correct answer, since the product of these 3 numbers is not 36.
Hint 3, combined with his response allows us to cancel ( 1 , 4 , 9 ) from the lot. It is said that the sum of their ages is the house number. Even though the house number of the person is not specified, whatever it was, if he knew the house number, he would be able to add and come to a conclusion. However, 2 choices in this case have the same sum. i.e. ( 1 , 6 , 6 ) and ( 2 , 2 , 9 ) which both sum up to 13. If his house number was 14, he would be able to immediately conclude that the house was ( 1 , 4 , 9 ) . Since he is still in a dilemma, the answer is either ( 1 , 6 , 6 ) or ( 2 , 2 , 9 ) .
Hint 4 states that there is in fact, a 'youngest' son. For this to be true he cannot have more than one child as the 'youngest'. The fact that he has blue eyes is completely irrelevant. This allows us to cancel ( 2 , 2 , 9 )
Leaving us with the only option, ( 1 , 6 , 6 )
P.S. I think this should be under the 'Logic' section.