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
mother, and she is now one-third the age of 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 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.