Tommy Smart was recently sent to a new school. On the first day of his arrival, the teacher asked him his age, and this was his curious reply: "Well, you see, it is like this. At the time I was born—I forget the year—my only sister, Ann, happened to be just one-quarter the age of the mother, and she is now one-third the age of the father." "That's all very well," said the teacher, "but what I want is not the age of your sister Ann, but your own age." "I was just coming to that," Tommy answered; "I am just a quarter of mother's present age, and in four years' time I shall be a quarter the age of the father. Isn't that funny?"
This was all the information that the teacher could get out of Tommy Smart. Could you have told, from these facts, what was his precise age? It is certainly a little puzzling.
Solutions: 1
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