Friday puzzle -- encyclopedia sales
Alex Y
An encyclopaedia salesman was working his way
along a row of terraced houses. His standard
patter was to ask about the children in the
household. At one house the lady who answered
the door told him: "I have three children.
The product of their ages is 72. The sum of
their ages equals the number of an adjoining
house next door." It was impossible for the
salesman to work out the ages from this.
At the next house the lady who answered the
door told him "I have three children. The
product of their ages is 72. The sum of their
ages equals the number of an adjoining house
next door." It was impossible for the salesman
to work out the ages from this either. At the
next house exactly the same thing happened
again, and it was impossible for the salesman
to work out the ages.
At a house a little further along the terrace
exactly the same thing happened again and it
was impossible for the salesman to work out
the ages. At the next house exactly the same
thing happened again, but this time the
salesman was able to work out their ages.
What were they?
Source:
New Scientist magazine, 26 May 2010.
By Susan Denham.
NOTE: This is a British magazine. It is my understanding (and an assumption I needed in order to solve this one) that sometimes their houses are numbered sequentially using every number, not just odds or just evens.