Ten Problems

Here’s is a fun problem I found on the Internet today while browsing around:

Once upon a time a king wanted to hire the best Mathematician in his kingdom to work in his palace. His servants brought to him the best two mathematicians, one of them was blind. The king told both mathematicians that he can’t hire both so he will ask a question and whoever answers gets the job.

The king said: “I have three sons, whoever guesses their ages will be hired.” The king told them that if they multiply the ages of his sons the result will be 36. Both mathematicians told the king that this information is not enough. The king then said: “The number of windows in the building across the street is equal to the sum of the ages of my sons.” The first mathematician (who can see) counted the windows, and told the king that he still could not figure it out. The Blind mathematician (who could not count the windows) told the king that he does not have an answer. The king then said: “My oldest son has red hair.” Right away the blind mathematician gave the correct answer and got hired.

The question is: How did the blind guy know the answer and what is the answer?

There are no ‘tricks’ to this problem. An you can assume the age are whole numbers and if their ages differ by less than a year they count as having the same ages (i.e. two six year olds have the same ages regardless of when they are born).

Source

Update: Solutions are posted!

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