When first the marriage knot was tied
Between my wife and me,
My age was to that of my bride
As three times three to three.
But now, when ten and half ten years
We man and wife have been,
Her age to mine exactly bears
As eight is to sixteen.
Now tell, I pray, from what I’ve said,
What were our ages when we wed?
Is it 15 and 45?
Can someone plz help me with this riddle
To solve this problem, we'll work step-by-step using algebraic equations. Let's assign some variables to the unknown values:
Let "x" represent your age when you got married.
Let "y" represent your wife's age when you got married.
From the first stanza, we have the equation:
x = (3/3) * y
Simplifying this equation, we get:
x = y
From the second stanza, we have the equation:
(x + 10.5) = (8/16) * (y + 10.5)
Multiplying both sides of the equation by 16, we get:
16(x + 10.5) = 8(y + 10.5)
Expanding and simplifying, we get:
16x + 168 = 8y + 84
Rearranging the equation, we get:
16x - 8y = -84
Now, we have a system of equations:
x = y ------ (Equation 1)
16x - 8y = -84 ------ (Equation 2)
Substituting Equation 1 into Equation 2, we get:
16(y) - 8(y) = -84
Simplifying, we get:
8y = -84
Dividing both sides by 8, we get:
y = -10.5
Since age cannot be negative, we discard this solution. It means there is an error in the problem or the puzzle uses non-standard age representation.
However, if we consider that -10.5 is a typographical error and the age should be positive, then the solution would be:
x = -10.5
In this case, you would have been -10.5 years old when you got married, which is not possible.