Question

Brainteaser. Don't be a bad sport ;)

Answer 1

Two individuals meet for lunch one day, a mathematician and an engineer, having not seen each other in 5 years. During the course of conversation, the mathematician asks the engineer "How old are your children now?"
The engineer, being a fan of brainteasers, responds "I have three children now, but can you work out their ages? Their ages in sum is equal to the number of cars you can see in that carpark over there. The product is 36."
"Very well," replies the mathematician, "but I need one more clue."
"The youngest has eyes that shine like blue sapphires," responds the engineer.
"Ah," replies the mathematician, "then their ages are..."

What are their ages?

Answer 2

1 6 6 ha

Answer 3

2 3 6?

Answer 4

\[xyz=36\]\[x,y,z \in \mathbb{Z}^+\]This gives us the possible combinations:
1, 1, 36 (38)
1, 2, 18 (21)
2, 2, 9 (13)
2, 3, 6 (13)
3, 3, 4 (11)
1, 6, 6 (11)

Since the mathematician knows how many cars there are outside, but are not able to answer before given the last clue we can rule out 1, 1, 36 and 1, 2, 18 since these two have exclusive sum, thus the mathematician would've been able to answer if any of those two were the answer.

This leaves us with 4 options:

2, 2, 9 (13)
2, 3, 6 (13)
3, 3, 4 (11)
1, 6, 6 (11)

When given the clue that the youngest child is NOT a twin (implied by stating that one of the children were youngest). We're left with two options:

2, 3, 6 (13)
1, 6, 6 (11)

The answer could be both of these.

Answer 5

Very good Prebz! The answer is 6, 6, 1. I didn't word it beautifully, but the idea is that they haven't seen each other in 5 years, and the mathematician was aware that the engineer had children - i.e. more than one child - so he must have had at least two children upon their last encounter. 3 being less than 5, it rules out 2, 3, 6. But excellent reasoning! You sure you haven't heard this one before? ;)

Answer 6

Yes, I was about to say that! I just realized it now.

Answer 7

Never heard it before, but the same logic approach applies to many different brain teasers.

Answer 8

oh damn i have missed one of them and didn't get sum 13 two times :D