Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by ksmiley 4252 days ago
3,3,4 isn't a valid solution because then B would not reply "that's not enough information." There's exactly one triplet that adds up to eleven, so if B's phone number ended in 11, she would have immediately deduced the solution instead of asking for more information. Same with 1,4,9: that's the only triplet adding to 14. The only valid triplets are ones that share a sum with another triplet. Only two triplets multiplying to 36 share a sum: 1,6,6 and 2,2,9 both add up to 13. Once B learns that A has an "oldest kid", B can rule out 1,6,6, because A would have said "one of my oldest kids has blue eyes" in that case. That leaves 2,2,9 as the only valid triplet.