A Random, Insightful Announcement

Hey guys! It's Charina, again. I'm not here to scribe, talk about "tall, handsome" men, or promote another secret blog. In fact, I'm not going to talk about Pre-Calculus at all. I know that you are all studying hard on all of your courses this term, but if you have time please drop by the Central Canada Comic Con at the Winnipeg Convention Centre! 

First of all, what is Comic Con? Well, if you like comic books (Legion, Daredevil, Batman, Superman, etc.), video games (Assassin's Creed, Uncharted,  Portal, etc.), Science Fiction, and stuff like that -- this place is for you. But if it's not your thing, that's alright too! We don't exclusively accommodate to comic-book/video game lovers, we have vendors who sell anime, Asian imports (*cough* Green tea Kit Kat *cough*), art supplies, crafts, posters, novelty items -- all of that fun stuff.  The con is officially up and running today, tomorrow and Sunday. Tickets can be purchased through Ticketmaster, which is also at the Convention Centre:

Weekend Passes - $37.00 

Child Weekend Passes - $22.00 

Adult Day Pass  - $17.00 

Child Day Pass - $17.00

Although I can say that it's a very nerdy gathering, it's the coolest nerdy gathering you'll ever go to. This is my third year working as staff (volunteer) and I have to say -- it's the best time of the year. If you want to find out more about the con, please visit the website and check it out. Even though this is a very un-mathematical post, I'm not leaving you guys empty handed. Here is an interesting riddle I picked up from the vast universe of the Internet:


A man taking the census walks up to the apartment of a mathematician and asks him if he has any children and how old they are. The mathematician says "I have three daughters and the product of their ages is 72." The man tells the mathematician that he needs more information, so the mathematician tells him "The sum of their ages is equal to our apartment number." The man still needs more information so the mathematician tells him "My oldest daughter has her own bed and the other two share bunk beds." 

How old are his daughters?

His daughters are 8, 3, and 3. The prime factorization of 72 is 2 * 2 * 2 * 3 * 3, so the possible ages are 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 12, and 18. Using the prime factorization and these numbers the only combinations of numbers that work for the first clue are:

18, 2 and 2.
9, 4 and 2.
6, 6 and 2.
6, 4 and 3.
8, 3, and 3.

Since he doesn't know the ages after this piece of information the sum of the three numbers must not be unique. The sum of 8, 3, and 3; and 6, 6, and 2 are the same. Now the final clue comes in handy. Since we know that the oldest daughter has her own bed it is likely that she has the bed to herself and is older than the other two so there ages are 8, 3, and 3 rather than 2, 6 and 6.