SOLUTION: Marco is in elementary school. His father is 30 years older than Marco, and his mother is 4 years younger than his father. The ages of Marco, his mother, and his father are all pri

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Question 1169871: Marco is in elementary school. His father is 30 years older than Marco, and his mother is 4 years younger than his father. The ages of Marco, his mother, and his father are all prime numbers. What are their ages?

Answer by greenestamps(13200)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!


Since the question involves prime numbers, there is no simple algebraic way to solve the problem; you can find answers by trial and error.

Note that the conditions almost certainly allow multiple possible answers; many of them of course won't make sense since they represent people's ages.

So it is impossible to find "THE" answer to the problem.

The requirements are:
(1) Marco's age is a prime number x;
(2) his father's age is a prime number x+30; and
(3) his mother's age is a prime number x+26

So simply choose a prime number for Marco's age and see if it results in prime number ages for his father and mother.
   Marco  father  mother
  -----------------------
     3      33      29      no
     5      35      31      no
     7      37      33      no
    11      41      37      YES
    13      43      39      no
    17      47      43      YES
    19      49      45      no
    23      53      49      no
    29      59      55      no
    31      61      57      no
    37      67      63      no
    41      71      67      YES
   ...
   101     131     127      YES -- but not reasonable!
   ...


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