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<blockquote data-quote="RangerWickett" data-source="post: 877535" data-attributes="member: 63">First, your rhyme scheme and meter could use some serious work.&nbsp; It just doesn't flow off the tongue as is, unless I'm missing some sort of strange beat.Second, their ages are 2, 2, and 9.Third, the explanation is actually rather simple.&nbsp; We have three clues:Clue one is that the product of the three daughters' ages is 36.&nbsp; Clue two is that if you add their ages together, it provides an ambiguous answer, since that clue alone didn't help him.&nbsp; What this means is that there have to be at least two sets of possible ages that have the same sum.&nbsp; Let's assume for simplicity's sake that the person isn't using fractional ages for his children, because if he is, he deserves to be punched.So we have options like:1, 1, 36 = 381, 2, 18 = 211, 3, 12 = 161, 4, 9 = 141, 6, 6 = 132, 2, 9 = 132, 3, 6 = 113, 3, 4 = 10There are only two sets that have the same sum.&nbsp; 1, 6, 6 and 2, 2, 9, both of which have a sum of 13.Now comes the third clue.&nbsp; It doesn't matter that a daughter looks like him.&nbsp; What matters is that he has an &quot;eldest&quot; daughter, meaning that the twins can't be the older set.&nbsp; If they were 1, 6, and 6, then he'd have no eldest daughter.&nbsp; Okay, he would have an eldest daughter, but the difference would be a matter of minutes.&nbsp; So we know that the twins must be younger, which gives us the set of 2, 2, and 9.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="RangerWickett, post: 877535, member: 63"] First, your rhyme scheme and meter could use some serious work. It just doesn't flow off the tongue as is, unless I'm missing some sort of strange beat. Second, their ages are 2, 2, and 9. Third, the explanation is actually rather simple. We have three clues: Clue one is that the product of the three daughters' ages is 36. Clue two is that if you add their ages together, it provides an ambiguous answer, since that clue alone didn't help him. What this means is that there have to be at least two sets of possible ages that have the same sum. Let's assume for simplicity's sake that the person isn't using fractional ages for his children, because if he is, he deserves to be punched. So we have options like: 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 There are only two sets that have the same sum. 1, 6, 6 and 2, 2, 9, both of which have a sum of 13. Now comes the third clue. It doesn't matter that a daughter looks like him. What matters is that he has an "eldest" daughter, meaning that the twins can't be the older set. If they were 1, 6, and 6, then he'd have no eldest daughter. Okay, he would have an eldest daughter, but the difference would be a matter of minutes. So we know that the twins must be younger, which gives us the set of 2, 2, and 9. [/QUOTE]

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