"Find My Age" Puzzles, But With All True Facts
A set of five 'find my age' puzzles built on true facts (Ja Rule's leap-day birthday, Anthony Hopkins's New Year's Eve birthday, Augustus and the missing year zero, De Morgan's x², and three brothers' arithmetic progression), with solutions.
Content note: Ja Rule panel references explicit lyrics (censored).
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Free for classrooms, worksheets, slides and other non-commercial use under CC BY-NC 4.0, with credit to Ben Orlin.
Cartoon by Ben Orlin, Math with Bad Drawings. https://cartoons.mathwithbaddrawings.com/2024-01-01-find-my-age-puzzles-but-with-all-true-facts/ (CC BY-NC 4.0)Transcript
[Cover] "Math with Bad Drawings proudly presents A Collection of Those Classic 'Find My Age' Puzzles, But With All True Facts"
[1] Ja Rule: his first hit "Holla Holla" was released before his sixth birthday… Why did such a young lad rap about such adult themes? [lyrics shown with [CENSORED]]
[2] Anthony Hopkins: When the NYC subway raised its fare from $0.90 to $1.00… Two days before the fare hike, he was 48. But the year after the fare hike, he turned 51. Why did that extra dime cost Sir Anthony so dearly?
[3] Augustus Caesar: born in 63 BCE and died a few weeks before his birthday in 14 CE. How old would Augustus Caesar have turned? ("I found Rome a city of bricks, and left it a city of lavish birthday parties.")
[4] De Morgan: "I turned x in the year x²," he replied. In what year was De Morgan born?
[5] The Olson Bros: three brothers all born on January 1st in different years. One year, one brother's age was precisely half the sum of the other two. How many years would pass before this happened again?
[Solutions] Ja Rule was born on Leap Day, 1976; his "sixth birthday" was the day he turned 24. · Hopkins (born Dec. 31): on Dec. 30 he was 48; on Dec. 31 he turned 49; on Jan. 1 the fare went up; that year he turned 50; the next year, 51. · From 63 BCE to 14 CE is 76 years; there was no year zero. · The only square between 1800 and 1900 is 43² = 1849, so De Morgan was born in 1806. · If this is true one year, it's true every year.