A Visit From The Priest

Mrs. Jones moved to a new town and her new parish priest called on her to see how she was doing. As they were chatting she mentioned she had three daughters.

Father O'Malley: How old are your three daughters?

Mrs. Jones: The product of their ages is 36, and the sum of their ages is the address on our door here.

Father O'Malley: (after some figuring) I’m afraid I can’t determine their ages from that …

Mrs. Jones: My eldest daughter has red hair.

Father O'Malley: Oh, thanks, now I know.

How old are the three girls?

Scroll down for the answer.

There are seven possible 3 number combinations that can give you 36 when you multiply them.

 1, 1, 36 = 38

 1, 6, 6 = 13

 2, 2, 9 = 13

 2, 3, 6 = 11

 3, 3, 4 = 10

 1, 9, 4 = 14

 1, 2, 18 = 21

 Since he couldn't figure it out it there must be at least two sets of three numbers whose product is 36 but that have the same sum. They are 1, 6, 6 or 2, 2, 9 for a sum of 13.

of 1, 6, 6 or 2, 2, 9.

The next clue is the fact that Mrs. Jones eldest daughter has red hair.  The eldest daughter’s hair color is unimportant, but the fact that Mrs. Jones has an eldest daughter implies that (1, 6, 6) can’t be the right answer. Thus her daughter’s ages are 2, 2, and 9.