Recently I attended a cocktail party. There was
a beautiful young woman, who also seemed very witty and intelligent. One of the
other guests suddenly popped a question at her “How old are you?” For a moment
she looked a bit embarrassed and while I stood there wondering how she was
going to wriggle out of the situation, she flashed a charming smile and answered,
“ My age three years hence multiplied by 3 and form that subtracted three times
my age three years ago will give you my exact age’.
The man who had asked her the age just walked away puzzled. Then she
leaned over and whispered to me” if he can calculate that one, he deserves to
know my age”.
How old do you think she was?
Answer: This problem can be
solved only by application of algebra. Supposing we take X for the years, the
age three years hence will be X+3 and the age three years ago X-3.
Now we have the equation 3 (X+3) -3 (X-3) = X When we solve this, we
obtain: 18. The girl is 18 years old.
To check this: Three years hence she will be 21 and three years ago she
was 15.
And the difference is: (3×21) – (3 ×15) =63-45 =18
