Sunday, November 30, 2008

Riddle #33: The Older Twin

One day Susie celebrated her birthday. Two days later her older twin brother, Sam, celebrated his birthday. How is this possible?

NOTE: The correct answer has been guessed. To read it, see the comments section.

Lateral Thinking Puzzlers by Paul Sloane has lots of classic riddles, clues and answers. Click here to order it.
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5 comments:

  1. Ancient Greek PhilosopherDecember 2, 2008 at 10:31 AM

    One was born before midnight and
    the other was born after midnight.
    Also, one is on one side of the
    international date line and the
    other is on the other side.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Marcia CDecember 2, 2008 at 11:06 AM

    Well, you got the most difficult part correct. Their mother was traveling when she gave birth to the twins. Sam was born first, thus he was older; but then she passed the international date line, so Susie was born on the previous date. That explains how Sam could be older and have a later birthdate.

    BUT -- and I think this is the easy part -- why was Sam's birthday TWO days later and not the next day?

    ReplyDelete
  3. SonjaDecember 2, 2008 at 8:38 PM

    It was February 28 and leap year and March 1

    ReplyDelete
  4. Marcia CDecember 2, 2008 at 9:42 PM

    Sonja -- You are correct!

    So, to summarize: Sam was born on a ship on March 1. After he was born, the ship passed the international date line, making it February 28. Then Susie was born. So on leap year, Susie celebrates her birthday on February 28. Then two days later, on March 1, Sam celebrates his birthday, even though he is older. Make sense? Good job both of you. This one was easier than I thought it would be.

    ReplyDelete
  5. SonjaDecember 6, 2008 at 12:49 AM

    emwcee - couldn't have done it without AGP's first guess. Thanks, y'all. sugarriver

    ReplyDelete

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