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You're not dumb at all...none of the rest of us could figure it out, so Butzie called in a ringer!Originally Posted by KristyKitty
oh I see. I must be really dumb because I still don't get it!
It never says whether her house or her neighbors house is even or odd. So couldn't her neighbor's house easily be 14, and her house be 12 or 16?
I'm sorry I'm so dumb and need things spelled out!
I had the same questions that you did...why not the other combinations? That's where logic and math had to both be used:
*He got his first clue, and realized that there were several combinations that ended up at 36 when multiplied together, so he asked for another clue. He needed another clue.
*The second clue said that the ages added together equal the house number next door, so he went and got that. The house number narrowed down his possibilities, but since he needed another hint, we know that although the possibilities were narrowed down, there were at least two possible combinations left. Of all of the possible combinations from clue 1, only two of them, when added together, equaled the same number. Those combinations were the ages 1, 6, 6, and 2, 2, 9. The only way to know which one is with another hint.
*The third hint was that the "eldest played piano". Like Butzie's DH said, that tells us that there is only one eldest. If she had said "one of the eldest plays piano", we would know that there were two eldest. So since there is only one eldest, it has to be the combination of 2, 2, 9. It's the fact that he needed all three clues is the reason that 2, 2, 9 is the answer.
Does that help?
My apologies to Butzie's DH for saying the same thing, but taking all the math lingo out of it for those of us who go all fuzzy when words like "integers" start being bandied about!