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"Who likes riddles?"

A mother is 21 years older than her son. In six years, she'll be five times older than him. Where is the father?

Answer below:










Let's call the age of the mother x and the age of the son y.

We can work out two equations from what we've been told.

x = y + 21

(Which is, the mother is 21 years older than the son)

x + 6 = 5(y + 6)

(Which is, in six years, the mother will be five times older.)

So if you just substitute x..

y + 21 + 6 = 5(y + 6)

y + 27 = 5y + 30

-3 = 4y

y = -3/4

But.. what does that mean? y = -3/4? It means years.

The son is -3/4 years. There are 12 months in a year, so, he's minus 9 months old.

Where's the father? Inside the mother.

Comrade Alfonse wrote:
> Can you say the answer please Timmargh? Because I think I know it

What Grix said, i.e. he's Mrs. Robin's son.

(a shadow)

Only one colour, but not one size.
Stuck at the bottom, but easily flies.
Present in sun but not in rain,
Doing no harm and feeling no pain.


What am I?

Timmargh wrote:
> Boringly easy:
>
> Woman: "Hello. I'm Mrs. Robinson."
> Man: "Really? So am I."
>
> How can this be?

He misheard, and the man is Mrs. Robin's son?

Can you say the answer please Timmargh? Because I think I know it

Boringly easy:

Woman: "Hello. I'm Mrs. Robinson."
Man: "Really? So am I."

How can this be?

frankly i would have never noticed as i would have never have solved the puzzle thus any hidden message would go unnoticed.

Thus i would make a crap spy especially if i was made to decode a message from a puzzle such as this.

This riddle is clearly a subtle campaign by pro-lifers to implant the idea that a fetus is a person (son) from the moment of conception. ;)

spoonbeast wrote:
> its one of those immensely cryptic puzzles that i hate immensely.
> Totally unclear and fustrating.
>
> Partly because its maths
> Partly because it doesn't give you much to work on unless you
> understand the problem in the first place.
>
>
> I'm more a logic puzzle guy, jigsaws, rubics cubes that sort of
> thing.

..is maths emotional now? How is maths not logical? It's about constants and finding out what everything else is from what you've been given! But erm, apologies for.. I'm not even sure what, uh, putting you out of your comfort zone.. and it was more of a joke than a puzzle! And maybe your things are more visual, stuff you can actually see?

And Meka yah, it completely dawned on me once I got as far as finding the -3/4s thing meant years.. 12 months.. ohhh!

I still find it very cute.

I wish I'd bothered to work it out, instead of just looking at the answer, as I think it would have been much funnier had it slowly dawned on me. -.75? where is the father..? Oh My!