Viewing Thread:
"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.

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.

hah, very good. Must remember that.

this is the type of maths thing that i dispise the most. Someone who won't give a straight answer.

spoonbeast wrote:
> this is the type of maths thing that i dispise the most. Someone
> who won't give a straight answer.

Apologies, I don't understand what you mean by that

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.

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!

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.

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. ;)

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.

Boringly easy:

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

How can this be?