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The biggest plays piano

Some time ago I read a story, want to share with you today on two mathematical friends, talking about their families, one asks the other if have children and what ages are, of course to have a good time and as is typical for fans of numbers and equations, the simple answer is disguised riddle and the dialogue between them was:

-The product of the ages of my three children is currently 36 and the sum is just the number of the house where you live. I right there ages?

"Actually, I can not yet because I need a fact," he replied after a few minutes.

"You're right answers. I forgot to tell that the greatest plays piano.

Interestingly, this last fact, even if at first seems irrelevant, it is sufficient to give the answer correct (the solution given at the end if you want to try to solve it).

This problem highlights us and reminds us that on many occasions to get answers to the big questions of life we \u200b\u200bneed some information or data that are in principle contradictory, paradoxical and implausible and people are not discarded a priori that make history and take over the time and as they did centuries: Archimedes, Hypatia, Gauss, Newton, Einstein, Curie, Hawking.

Many of the keys needed for the solution of certain problems are in front of our eyes, in the everyday and the same nature. The study of birds, their structure and movement or shape of the leaves of some trees, helped solve many problems in aeronautics. In designing the costumes for swimming, has been imitated shark skin to speed underwater and in the design of the cars is looking for some forms of nature that encourage fuel efficiency. The structure of the cells in the honeycombs of bees or the distribution of trees to optimize the use of light and nutrients are studied in biology. The ancient art of paper folding known as origami o papiroflexia , se empieza a utilizar en el diseño de naves espaciales para extender paneles solares una vez que estén en órbita.

Existen relaciones maravillosas entre la teoría de juegos y la economía, entre el crecimiento de las plantas y el diseño publicitario, entre la geometría fractal y la distribución de las poblaciones, entre la teoría de números y la seguridad bancaria, entre la teoría del caos y la contaminación ambiental.

In any situation we find ourselves where we should take decisions, we must analyze each of the data and do not discard a priori assumptions that seem superfluous, and the remedies that seem unlikely.

When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains,
however improbable, must be the truth. Sherlock Holmes

SOLUTION

For A, B, C ages, it has 8 possible cases where the product is 36

1-2 ABC
01/01/1936 01/03/1912
-18

1-4-9 1-6-6 2-2-9

2-3-6 3-3-4

only 5 cases and 6 you get an equal amount, so that if a missing data, the friend lives at house number 13. In both cases there are twins, but only if 6 can speak of "the greatest", so ages are 2, 2, 9.