From: David Cantrell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: 10/19/01 12:31:29 PM
>On Fri, Oct 19, 2001 at 09:48:51AM +0100, Greg McCarroll wrote: >> And finally a quick riddle, where you have to work out >> the age of Diophantus, >> "Here lies Diophantus," the wonder behold . . . >> Through art algebraic, the stone tells how old: >> "God gave him his boyhood one-sixth of his life, >> One twelfth more as youth while whiskers grew rife; >> And then yet one-seventh ere marriage begun; >> In five years there came a bouncing new son. >> Alas, the dear child of master and sage >> After attaining half the measure of his fathers life >> chill fate took him. >> After consoling his fate by this science of numbers for >> four years, he ended his life." > > This is trivial, but can give two answers depending on > how you interpret "half the measure of his fathers > life". Is it half the measure of his father's *entire* > life, or half the measure of his father's life up until > that point? Yeah. Spotted that, but went with the most obvious one (the first one). > Assuming the former ... As did I. > x/6 + x/12 + x/7 + 5 + x/2 + 4 = x Well, we started with the same equation > => 84x + 42x + 72x + 2520 + 252x + 1008 = 504x # multiply by 504 I multiplied by 84. Giving 14x + 7x + 12x + 420 + 42x + 336 = 84x > => 2520 + 1008 = 3528 = 54x 756 = 9x >=> x = 65 yrs 4 months, give or take a day or two x = 84 I believe your error was in the calculation of 4 x 504 :) hth, Dave... -- <http://www.dave.org.uk> "Let me see you make decisions, without your television" - Depeche Mode (Stripped)
