Answer
The two sons rowed to safety first, one son rowed back.
I rowed to safety and the other son rowed back to the island.
The two sons rowed to safety first, one son rowed back again.
My wife rowed to safety and the other son rowed back.
Finally, the two sons rowed to safety.
???
Puzzle 4
As the auditor for my local theme park, I noticed that on Saturday there were 4,296 children and 2,143 adults and the takings were £98,718.
However, on Sunday, there were 5,146 children and 2,807 adults and the takings were £122,570.
How much were the children's tickets and adult's tickets?
Hint
This is quite a tricky puzzle, and knowledge of algebra would certainly help.
Answer
The children tickets were £14, and the adult tickets were £18.
Reasoning
There are a number of methods for solving this problem, including:
Using a spreadsheet.Using a computer program.Using the intersection of lines on a graph.Using an online equation solver.Solving simultaneous equations using algebra.Solving simultaneous equations using inverse matrices.
Here is my solution using simultaneous equations and algebra.
First construct two algebraic equations, where 'c' is the number of children, and 'a' is the number of adults: