Logic test part 2

[victor barry]

A perfect statistician is doing a survey, in a housing estate and knocks on one door. A lady opens it and he ask's her how many children she has. She replies 3. He then ask's her their ages but she feels that he's being rude and it's none of his business so she refuses him and closed the door. He knocks again and appologises for his apparent rudeness and ask's if she'd give him a clue to their ages so she agrees
1) she say's if you multiply the 3 ages you get 36.
He is still very unsure and ask's for another clue.
2) she say's if you add up their ages you get the number of the house next door. He checks the house next door and ask's for another clue.
3)She tells him that after she had her first child, she was reluctant to have a second.

Assuming that the 3 ages are all whole numbers, and that the clues are accurrate,what are the three ages?

[MrsB]

9, 2, 2.

[checkpoint]

6, 3, 2

[Red Chilli]

I'll plump for 6,3,2 also

The alternative: 9,2,2 adds up to 13 and you don't have a number 13 house usually.

[nevelator]

I would go with 2,2 & 9. The only point of the second clue is to tell you that you need a third to actually figure out what combination of numbers is needed.

[Beastie]

1,4,9

[Red Chilli]

1,4,9

could be

[Steve]

I'll plump for 6,3,2 also

The alternative: 9,2,2 adds up to 13 and you don't have a number 13 house usually.

I haven't a clue but I used to live in a number 13.

[livvy145]

9, 2, 2

[luke]

I would go with 2,2 & 9. The only point of the second clue is to tell you that you need a third to actually figure out what combination of numbers is needed.

i agree

[Guest]

flmao at all

[Reaper]

Fredo you seen this before I take it.. Nice one..

So have I

[Red Chilli]

The only point of the second clue is to tell you that you need a third to actually figure out what combination of numbers is needed.

Jeebus, what the **** is that supposed to mean, that's harder to figure out than the original puzzle.

[Reaper]

If there is a number on the door and he still needs a third clue there must be at least two set of three digits that total the same

[victor barry]

The answer is of course 2,2,9

1) the set of 36 factorised into 3 factors is as follows:

1,1,36
1,2,18
1,3,12
1,4,9
1,6,6
2,2,9
2,3,6
3,3,4

2) the sum of the elements of each subset is as follows:

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

3) The fact that after seeing the house next door he still needed another clue means that we can deduce that it must be either 2,2,9 or 1,1,6 as these are the only 2 subset's whose elements' sum is not unique to the elements' sum of the other subsets

4) From her grammar in the final clue we can deduce that the answer can not be 1,6,6 as she speaks of her reluctance to have a second child as opposed to speaking about a third child had she just given birth to twins (remember whole numbers only!)