[CV063] How Old Is Mom?

←

062 - The Mysterious Note

063 - How Old Is Mom?

064 - Odd Equations

→

How Old Is Mom?
Game	Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Number	063
Type	Write Answer
Location	Manor Parlor
Given by	Lady Dahlia Reinhold
Solved by	Professor Layton
Picarats	20
Mandatory	No
Reward	Furniture (Spledid Painting)
In other languages
日本語	夫婦の危機！ fūfu no kiki!
Deutsch	Wie alt ist Mutter?
Español	¿Y la madre?
Français	L'âge de ma mère
Italiano	Gli anni della mamma
한국의	엄마의 나이

How Old Is Mom? (Mother's Age in the UK version) is a puzzle in Professor Layton and the Curious Village.

Puzzle

A father and son are having a conversation. The father turns to the son and says:

"You know, Son, there was a time when your old man was twice the age of your mother. Of course, the next year, I was only one and a half times her age, but still, that's pretty amazing, eh?"

If the father is 44 years old, how old is the mother?

Hints

• →
• Hint 1
• Hint 2
• Hint 3

Click a Tab to reveal the Hint.

You just need to find the difference between the father's age and mother's age. At what ages are the two parents separated by two times the age of the mother?
There's only one point where the father's age can change from twice the mother's age to 1.5 times the mother's age after one year.

For the father's age to change from twice the mother's age to 1.5 times the mother's age in one year, both parents would have had to be very young at the time. Very, very young.

When the mother was one year old...

Solution

Incorrect

That's not the answer.

Does it seem like you aren't getting the whole story? The father is choosing his words very carefully.

Correct

That's right!

The mother is 43 years old.

When the boy's father was two years old, his mother was one. The next year, he turned three and she turned two. When you realize this is the only combination of ages that yield the ratios mentioned in the problem, everything starts to make sense.