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To: Henry Volquardsen who wrote (8918)	3/11/1999 12:44:00 PM
From: Graham C.	Respond to of 62549

Henry, are you absolutely sure ?

To: Henry Volquardsen who wrote (8918)	3/11/1999 12:45:00 PM
From: DScottD	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 62549

I believe the riddle was "The ship is twice as old as the boiler was when the ship was as old as the boiler is." The ship is 60. The boiler has to be 45, because when the ship was 45 the boiler was 30 which is half as old as the ship is.

To: Henry Volquardsen who wrote (8918)	3/11/1999 12:50:00 PM
From: Graham C.	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 62549

Ship and boiler - solution ... A coconut to Shawn for a correct answer. Henry, if the ship were 15 years younger ( = 45 ) then th boiler would also be 15 years younger ( = 30 ) and hence the ship would now be twice as old ( 60 ) as the boiler was (30 ) when the ship was as old ( 45 ) as the boiler is now ( 45 ). PS. A pair of coconuts to Shawn for managing not to post his answer on the subject line of his post ! <ggg> Graham.

To: Henry Volquardsen who wrote (8918)	3/12/1999 12:25:00 AM
From: Yorikke	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 62549

Always nice to see things at work... ..if the answer isn't right just change the question. Works every time!! I suggest you consider a career in politics. You are sure to make a great elected official. The ship is 60. that was a fact. It was not a question. Who cares what the answer is when the ship is 67.5? By then the ship is going to have to retire anyway! "A ship is twice as old as its boiler was when the ship was as old as the boiler is. If the ship is, say, 60 yrs old, how old is the boiler?" x=2y x=y x=60 ---------- 3x=3y+60 x=y+20 60=y+20 As that's the ships age. y=40 Of course I'll accept your answer if it means you are going to feel bad if you got a wrong one. Maybe we are both right. Hell we are all right! Lets drag the damn ship to court for even thinking about playing such a sad game on the boiler. To suggest that a ship would get another boiler after the first boiler had done such a good job is really not quite ship shape. One wonders if the ship even compensated the first boiler or simply exploited it for its own purposes. Henry....i got so carried away I lost track of who said what...ahh well so you are right after all...and we both are too....I feel so much better now..

To: Henry Volquardsen who wrote (8918)	3/12/1999 10:12:00 AM
From: Paul Moerman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 62549

I was able to back in to the answer of 45, but asked my daughter who is a college math major how she would have solved it. Her solution is much more elegant than mine! ;-) Let Bt = boiler age "then" Bn = boiler age "now" St = ship age "then" Sn = ship age "now" We know that Sn = 60 = 2Bt, so Bt = 30 Also, St = Bn. Since the "then"s were at the same time and the "now"s are at the same time, we can equate the differences: Bn - Bt = Sn - St, substitute in what we know Bn - 30 = 60 - St, and since St = Bn... Bn - 30 = 60 - Bn, so 2Bn = 90 and Bn = 45.