Monday, April 06, 2009

Kevin was here, and a word puzzle

Kevin was here
As the river is frozen Kevin came back to Calgary to visit. Here's a word puzzle that came up from talking with Kevin and Clement.

Three True Statements:

Dave and Clement were born in the 1970s

Kevin and Clement were born in the same decade.

If you swap Dave and Kevin the previous two statements are false.

Given that Dave is the oldest, what years were Dave and Kevin born?

- Peace

11 comments:

kris said...

What's stumping me is that it seems that you and Clement would both be born in the 70s but not in the same decade. I assume there's an obvious but tricky word in there that's throwing me off.

Dave King said...

Tricky definitions.

- Peace

Reverend Joyleaf said...

My guess would be that Dave was born in 1970 and Kevin was born in 1980. Also, Clement was born somewhere between 1971-1979.

1970 is part of the 1970s and is part of the decade that falls between 1961-1970.

1980 is part of the 1980s and is part of the decade that falls from 1971-1980.

Awkward explanation but I think you catch my drift.

What do I win?

kris said...

I guess it was the word "the" that threw me off, as in "the same decade."

I was thinking even with a decade meaning either the years *0-*9 or any consecutive 10 years you and Clement were still born in a same decade, namely, the 70s. I wasn't thinking about all the other decades that you were excluded from.

So, my answer still isn't comlete (maybe by tomorrow?)

You = b.70-78
Clement = b. 79
Kevin = b. 80-88

but am I getting warmer?

kris said...

I should have said: depending on when you were born Clement could have been born from 71-79.

Dave King said...

Hey Kris, thanks for trying but the Rev. Joyleaf gets it. The key is understanding that there is no year zero. So decades go from years 1 -10.

But we talk about the 70's 80's 90's think of them as starting at 70,80,90 even though they are ending the decade that started in 61,71,81. The misalignment of the two closely related terms makes the puzzle work.

Rev you get the glory of getting it first here at IdeaJoy.

- Peace

kris said...

You'll have to take that one up with the dictionary.com people because they disagree - decade.

Reverend Joyleaf said...

But who are we to believe? Over here it says it can be both.

Dave King said...

Kris Dictionary.com wasn't responding when I tried to check it. Rev you'll see that the site you listed added the modifier "common usage" to the definition that would include 70-79. Got to ask why they had to add the modifier.

The any ten years definition is ruled out by the third statement as using it would make the second statement true for both Kevin and I.

- Peace

Richard Wan said...

So if this decade goes from 2001 to 2010...

Then the Habs still have a chance to win the Stanley Cup this decade!

(They have a cup in every decade previous to this one)

Dave King said...

Richard,

Having reviewed all the wins for the Canadians, yes that would be true :)

- Peace