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borg472918433
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BIRTHDAY TWINS
« on: Jul 24th, 2002, 1:18am » |
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Hiya,
I have a stupid answer for this one. It can't be real so I post it here. =)
It read:
<BEGIN>
BIRTHDAY TWINS
Sheila and He-Man are twins; Sheila is the OLDER twin. Assume they were born immediately after each other, an infinitesimally small - but nonzero - amount of time apart. During one year in the course of their lives, Sheila celebrates her birthday two days AFTER He-Man. How is this possible?
<END>
I say "AFTER" means He-Man is dead. So I speculate that He-Man dies 2 days before their birthday. So Sheila celebrates her birthday 2 days after He-man (dies). How about that? Hehhehe
Borg #472918433
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fishnugget
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hmm. i like your idea. It's definitely valid in a way 
I'm stumped on this one. At first i thought that this could happen if the younger twin was born on leap year's day -feb 29th. But that didn't make any sense either.
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Dr. D
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Assume they were born in a plane crossing the date line at the end of february.
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ryser2k
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Assume that He-Man is born at midnight on Feb. 28 (not a leap year) and Sheila is born the next day (March 1). In this case, Sheila is already celebrating her birthday the day after He-Man's. Now when a leap year rolls around, the extra day in between will separate their birthday celebrations by two days.
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Yottabyte
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It doesn't say he-man can't celebrate early.....
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Cathy
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Originally, I was focusing on the leap year idea,too. But then I figured this approch would never work because Sheila is the OLDER one.
Then I realize, it could work with the help of the time zone difference. Say, on a leap year, the twins were given birth on an airplane (or a boat) as it was crossing the pacific ocean travelling from East to West. Sheila was born on one side of the time zone, on March 1st (before 1am). And right after the transportation device had crossed to the next time zone, He-Man was born. Because the western time come after eastern time, so the clock was set back for one hour. Which means He-Man was actually born on Feb 28th (right before 00:00am).
Therefore, even though Sheila is biologically OLDER, He-Man actually has the birthday first in term of callendar.
So, He-Man has the birthday 2 days before Sheila every leap year.
p.s. Feel free to point out the errors I might have in explaining the time zone concepts, for geography has always been a subject I willfully neglected. But I believe the idea in my explanation is correct.
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PKo
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Why do you think Sheilla is a girl and He-Man a boy ?
If Sheilla is a boy, and He-Man a girl, then , there is nothing special in Sheila celebrates her birthday two days AFTER He-Man
Ok, 'after' is written upper case, so what ?
I refer to the 28 fev - 01 mar solution on a leap year.
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Pko
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Forget the previous message
My english is poor and I misunderstood the sentence.
After some thought I like Cathy answer.
Shella is born first on the 01 mar, the they crosses the changing date line and He-man born on 28 feb.
On a leap year, Sheilla has her birthday two days after He-Man.
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Jon L
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It can actually be 3 days as well. There are a couple time zones in the world that are +13 and +14 from Universal Time (Zulu Time) That means for a brief 1 or 2 hour window you could cross the dateline and actually go back 2 calender days. If you also add that to the leap year then it will be 3 days. Prob someone has mentioned this in another thread but I have not looked at others yet.
Jon
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Bobbin
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I think this is a terrible riddle. While an independent carrier is in motion over international waters, the carrier acts not as an "independent country", but rather as the country of the pilot's nationality. Got that? What this means is that the international date line does not come into it because we are going by the national time of the pilot's nationality, which therefore means the only way it COULD happen is if one was legitimately born on 28Feb at 23.59, and the next on March 1 0.01
Anyhow I do have a legitimate solution. Father and Mother are crossing international waters each on their own raft. They've split up, however they agreed to meet for the birth of their twins, and that Mother gets the older child, and Father gets the younger child. Father is a Kiwi, Mother is a hermit from Baker Island. Mother goes by her time for her daughter, Father goes by his time for his son.
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rmsgrey
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Re: BIRTHDAY TWINS
« Reply #10 on: Jan 18th, 2005, 7:36am » |
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on Jan 17th, 2005, 6:30pm, Bobbin wrote:I think this is a terrible riddle. While an independent carrier is in motion over international waters, the carrier acts not as an "independent country", but rather as the country of the pilot's nationality. Got that? What this means is that the international date line does not come into it because we are going by the national time of the pilot's nationality, which therefore means the only way it COULD happen is if one was legitimately born on 28Feb at 23.59, and the next on March 1 0.01
Anyhow I do have a legitimate solution. Father and Mother are crossing international waters each on their own raft. They've split up, however they agreed to meet for the birth of their twins, and that Mother gets the older child, and Father gets the younger child. Father is a Kiwi, Mother is a hermit from Baker Island. Mother goes by her time for her daughter, Father goes by his time for his son. |
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Or the captain could die of a heart attack at the appropriate moment, being replaced by someone of the appropriate (different) nationality
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Grimbal
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Re: BIRTHDAY TWINS
« Reply #11 on: Jan 18th, 2005, 7:54am » |
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on Jan 17th, 2005, 6:30pm, Bobbin wrote:| I think this is a terrible riddle. While an independent carrier is in motion over international waters, the carrier acts not as an "independent country", but rather as the country of the pilot's nationality. Got that? What this means is that the international date line does not come into it because we are going by the national time of the pilot's nationality, which therefore means the only way it COULD happen is if one was legitimately born on 28Feb at 23.59, and the next on March 1 0.01 |
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OK, then maybe SHE is born just before landing, and the pilot's nationality is from a country just west of the date line, and HE is born just after the landing, in a country just east of the date line. There can be a 2-day difference. If it happened when most of Earth is on March 1, the time zones extend from feb 28 (timezone -13) to march 2 (timezone -13). On a leap year the birthdays are 3 days apart.
If then HE celebrates his birthday on the first possible occasion on Earth, and SHE celebrates it in the last possible minute, it can be up to 4*24h later.
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Icarus
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Re: BIRTHDAY TWINS
« Reply #12 on: Jan 18th, 2005, 3:08pm » |
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on Jan 17th, 2005, 6:30pm, Bobbin wrote:| I think this is a terrible riddle. While an independent carrier is in motion over international waters, the carrier acts not as an "independent country", but rather as the country of the pilot's nationality. Got that? What this means is that the international date line does not come into it because we are going by the national time of the pilot's nationality, |
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Sorry, but I don't buy that at all. For starters, unless the pilot comes from a small country, there is no "national time of the pilot's nationality". The USA has at least 6 time zones. If you count territories, we have more. Which time zone gets used? Using the local time is not "acting as an independent country". Time zones in international waters are a matter of international treaty. Any country recognizing the treaty (and just about all do) also recognizes the international date line.
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"Pi goes on and on and on ...
And e is just as cursed.
I wonder: Which is larger
When their digits are reversed? " - Anonymous
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Amanda Gallagher
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Close. One was born on the 28th of Feb, and the other on March 1st. Thus, when leap year comes around, one celebrates on the 28th, and the other two days later, on March 1st. 
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Icarus
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Re: BIRTHDAY TWINS
« Reply #14 on: Jan 31st, 2005, 4:39pm » |
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Sorry, Amanda, but that does not solve it. According to the puzzle, it is the older twin who celebrates her birthday two days after the younger twin. It is this reversal of birthdays that make this problem non-trivial.
[There are several other threads for this puzzle, and at least two of them tell the solution.]
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"Pi goes on and on and on ...
And e is just as cursed.
I wonder: Which is larger
When their digits are reversed? " - Anonymous
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relativity
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I just showed this riddle to someone and he pointed out another interesting solution, wich relies on physics actually.
If Sheila is put on a spaceship and then returned to earth after an appropriate time, her own clock will be late (yet right for her!) when comparing to earth time - so she can celebrate her birthday before her brother.
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Grimbal
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Re: BIRTHDAY TWINS
« Reply #16 on: Feb 2nd, 2005, 4:09am » |
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That would make the older twin becomes the younger twin. Wouldn't it? 
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| « Last Edit: Oct 14th, 2005, 12:36am by Grimbal » |
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relativity
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that depends on your point of view!
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ThudnBlunder
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Re: BIRTHDAY TWINS
« Reply #18 on: Feb 2nd, 2005, 11:26am » |
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Quote:| that depends on your point of view! |
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IIRC, it is the twin who experiences acceleration/deceleration that ages less.
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THE MEEK SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH.....................................................................er, if that's all right with the rest of you.
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nusuth
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"Bonus: What is the maximum amount of time by which Sheila and He-Man can be apart in their birthday celebrations during the same year?" Assuming dates less than 365 days apart are in the same year, Sheila can celebrate 354 days after He-Man. He-man celebrates his nth birthday on October 15, 1582 and Sheila celebrates her nth birthday on October 14, 1583.
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The Puzzler
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I had some of my mom's students try and figure this out, and here are the top two answers.
~One was born February 28 and one was born moments later on March 1. That would cause them to be born 2 days apart
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~OR~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ They were born on the same day, but celebrated their birthdays on differents sides of the worlds when there birthday came along.
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Icarus
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Re: BIRTHDAY TWINS
« Reply #21 on: Oct 6th, 2005, 8:15pm » |
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Neither answer works, though the first is part way there. Note that the YOUNGER twin celebrates his birthday 2 days BEFORE the OLDER twin.
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"Pi goes on and on and on ...
And e is just as cursed.
I wonder: Which is larger
When their digits are reversed? " - Anonymous
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The Puzzler
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If we are almost there will you please take pity on us who go nuts when they can't figure out something and tell us the answer. My hit on the head for me saying, "Duh" won't bother me as much as not knowing. 
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new shoes
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what if they're not each others twins?
sheila is born in australia and then he-man is born in america. america is a day behind australia so he is born on a wednesday and she is born on a thursday.. they then travel to each others respective countries. he celebrates his birthday on wednesday which is tuesday for her so she has to wait TWO days to celebrate her birthday.
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Grimbal
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Re: BIRTHDAY TWINS
« Reply #24 on: Oct 13th, 2005, 5:29am » |
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I think it is easy. Assume A (she) is older than B (him), they are born the same day in the same place. Where is not important.
There are places near the date line that have timezone -12 and other +12. In these places it is the same time but the official day is one day apart.
B celebrates his birthday on the first minute of nis birthday west of the date line. It takes 24 hours for this day to reach the other side. It takes 24 more hours for the day to finish on the east side. So, A can celebrate her birthday almost 48 hours after B did.
I believe there is even a +13 time zone which gives them a one hour window to celebrate at a 48 hour interval.
Of course, since they celebrate near midnight, it is more accurate to say A celebrates 2 *nights* after B, not 2 days.
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| « Last Edit: Oct 13th, 2005, 5:31am by Grimbal » |
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