How old?

fade2black

Reasoning needed to verify answer

A man walks into a bar, orders a drink, and starts chatting with the bartender.
After a while, he learns that the bartender has three children.
"How old are your children?" he asks.
"Well," replies the bartender, "the product of their ages is 72."
The man thinks for a moment and then says, "That's not enough information."
"All right," continues the bartender, "if you go outside and look at the building number posted over the door to the bar, you'll see the sum of the ages."
The man steps outside, and after a few moments he re-enters and declares, "Still not enough!"
The bartender smiles and says,
"My youngest just loves strawberry ice cream."
With that, the man correctly states the childrens’ ages.

How old are the children?

HybridTech

Quick guess; 3, 4 & 6?

fade2black

Any reasoning?

Healio

id say 2 4 and 9

*adele*

y shud i care!

HybridTech

On the info given, no, no reasoning! As Healio pointed out, 2,4 & 9 works too! Adele, don't know y u shud or shudn't care, it's still a good puzzler!

Shrimp

1, 8, 9?

Healio

*adele* wrote:

y shud i care!

y shud we care about scumbags throwing chewing gum in peoples hair?

ixoy

2, 6, 6?

The "My youngest loves strawberry ice cream" enables him to deduce that one is younger than the others. The other two are the same age - 6. 6x6x2 = 72. The number over the bar door is just mis-leading...

*adele*

wow i had no idea how to do that at all...how do u get it?

fade2black

Use the ice cream statement as the final piece to the puzzle.

Work first of all on 3 numbers (ages) that when multiplied together =72

Shrimp

72 1 1, 36 2 1, 24 3 1, 18 4 1, 18 2 2, 12 6 1, 12 3 2, 9 4 2, 9 8 1, 8 3 3, 6 6 2, 6 4 3

Here's all the possible combinations, now to verify.. hmm.. gimme a few minutes..

HybridTech

ixoy sounds good. "chewing gum in hair"?? no idea! 1,2 & 36 also works out (but that's a mom at 18 and again at 43?), but can't see a 1 year old being fed ice-cream (or chewing gum for that matter!)

ixoy

fade2black wrote:

Use the ice cream statement as the final piece to the puzzle.

Work first of all on 3 numbers (ages) that when multiplied together =72

I did and I got 2, 6, and 6, which fits in with the ice-cream statement. If it were 3,3, and 8 then the phrase would be "My youngest *love* strawberry icecream", to indicate there's more than one...

Shrimp

ok.. I'm on to something..

72 1 1 = 74, 36 2 1 = 39, 24 3 1 = 28, 18 4 1 = 23, 18 2 2 = 22, 12 6 1 = 19, 12 3 2 = 17, 9 4 2= 15, 9 8 1 = 18, 8 3 3 = 14, 6 6 2 = 14, 6 4 3 = 13.

Both 6+6+2 and 8+3+3 equal 14, which means that It has to be one of those two? Cos otherwise it'd be unsolvable..

His youngest likes ice cream or somthing, meaning that there's one thats the youngest.. this would lead us to belive that the combination in 6+6+2.. simple really?

ixoy

Shrimp wrote:

Both 6+6+2 and 8+3+3 equal 14, which means that It has to be one of those two? Cos otherwise it'd be unsolvable..

His youngest likes ice cream or somthing, meaning that there's one thats the youngest.. this would lead us to belive that the combination in 6+6+2.. simple really?

Ah yes same logic as I but incorporating the middle step... Consider it solved, even if fade2black doesn't come back...

Shrimp

He'll be back..

crazy angel

mmmm strawberry ice cream!

HybridTech

Earth to fadetoblack come back. De lads have it sorted. R dey roight or whot? Number over de bar is obviously a draw! So, it has to be 6, 6 & 2 (de youngest being 2)!

Shrimp

Yes.. It's 110% right.. no doubt..

fade2black

Sorry lads, I was doing something on another thread.....

The number on the door is relevant.

The answers given are feesible but not explained as to why these are the only ages that can be the correct solution.

Shrimp

hey fade.. why aren't you on msn now?

fade2black

Sorry Shrimp...will hop on for ya...

You done very well lads...fair play....

Is it because when he sees the building number it is 14 and there are two combinations of numbers that can be 14. ages 8 3 and 3 and ages 6 6 and 2. Therefore once he knows there is a youngest that means it has to be 6 6 and 2

fade2black

part time butcher Betty Fairwinner makes up trays of meat for her customers to pop into their freezers.
The trays vary in size, depending on the contents and also vary quite a bit in price.
For instance a tray of beef costs £10, while a tray of sausages costs £20.
Lamb and pork are both £9 while venison costs £17.
Chicken costs £16 whereas turkey is £2 cheaper.

There is a method to how she works out her prices.

Can you see what it is, and if you can, how much would she charge for a tray of chipolatas?

Good luck

HybridTech

Definitely not £'s anyway!

ixoy

Easy one here - Chipolatas cost £24.

Here's the reasoning - She assigns a value based on the makeup of the word. Each vowel is assigned one value, each consonant another.
Beef - 2 consonstants, 2 vowels --> 2x+ 2y = 10
Sausages - 4 consonants, 4 vowels --> 4x+ 4y = 20

Those eqns. aren't much use together so look at:
Venison - 4 consonsants, 3 vowels --> 3x + 4y = 17

So solved using:

3x + 4y = 17
2x + 2y = 10 --->

12x + 16y = 68
12x+ 12y = 60
=============
4y = 8
y = 2 (the value of a consonant)

Sub back in and we get x=3 (value of a vowel)

So therefore:
Chipolatas - 4 vowels, 6 consonants - (4x3) + (6x2) = 24.

Am I right?

fade2black

Fair play.....

fade2black

Sorry that fair play was for Hybrid's comment.

Well done IXOY, excellent reasoning!!

HybridTech

That as a good guess! It was a guess wasn't it?

ixoy

HybridTech wrote:

That as a good guess! It was a guess wasn't it?

Heh. All my time spent on that bastard puzzledonkey had some use for thinking laterally and seeing patterns

fade2black

A bag of potatoes weighs fifty kilograms divided by half the weight of the bag of potatoes. What is the weight of the bag of potatoes in kilos?