Where is Jennifer's husband?

Question

Jennifer is 21 years older than her son Douglas. 6 years from now, Jennifer will be 5 times as old as Douglas.

Question: Where is Jennifer's husband most likely to be right now?

@xnor Well, it does have a clear solution as to the ages of Jennifer and Douglas. And in the original version, there was a "where is he most likely to be?" disclaimer, which cuts out a lot of the nitpicks from the two joke answers below. — Rand al'Thor, Mar 19 '15 at 00:37
Jennifer's husband is fishing in Canada. (with apologies to Raymond Smullyan) — David, Mar 19 '15 at 02:14
@David - Which is a subset of my "... could be anywhere in the world" :P — User Anonymous, Mar 19 '15 at 05:03
Perhaps the puzzle could be improved by changing the final question to "Where is Douglas's father?" — R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE, Mar 19 '15 at 05:47
The original question was not phrased well. I had edited it to resolve that, not realizing the importance of the "most likely" part. I've edited again, restoring that key aspect of the question. :) — JakeRobb, Mar 19 '15 at 14:18
this is the most amazing puzzle I have encountered nowadays! — Oray, Feb 20 '16 at 10:46
It just seems like this question has already been asked here quite a while before... — Tacticus, Dec 19 '16 at 18:56

leoll2 · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-21T18:42:58.997

59

Let's define $J$=Jennifer and $D$=Douglas.
The problem can be rewritten as:

$J=D+21$
$J+6=5(D+6)$

According to my math, Douglas is $D=(-\frac{3}{4})$ years old, which means $-9$ months. Pregnancy lasts for nine months, so Jennifer's husband is in the bed with her right now.

edited May 21 '15 at 18:42

answered Mar 18 '15 at 18:15

leoll2

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That's actually the milk man.. – blakeoft Mar 18 '15 at 18:18
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Actually, you can't know yet whether Douglas is a male or a female... – leoll2 Mar 18 '15 at 18:21
maybe replace the name douglas with Pat, and the word son, with child – JLee Mar 18 '15 at 18:28
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actually they may not be in bed. But he's most probably inside her – Novarg Mar 18 '15 at 19:05
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@leoll2 - "Actually, you can't know yet whether Douglas is a male or a female". Yes, and I can imagine some feminist visiting this post and calling all of us "male chauvinist pigs". :P – User Anonymous Mar 19 '15 at 05:06
@UserAnonymous We must be doing something right then. – Pharap Mar 19 '15 at 15:27
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To be nitpicky, human gestation averages 280 days. The number of days in 9 months is between 273 and 276, depending on which month you start counting from, so we can really only say Jennifer's husband will be in bed with her - on average - within the next 7 days. And even if you massaged the numbers to pinpoint the day, you can't be sure they are in bed right now, you could be a few hours off due to rounding errors. – Michael Mar 19 '15 at 16:36

score 27 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 19 '15 at 11:21

27

Jennifer's husband is busy in business meetings, while Douglas's dad is with Jennifer.

answered Mar 19 '15 at 11:21

Ashutosh Nigam

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I was wondering when someone was going to give this kind of amswer, ahahah – Marco Bonelli Mar 19 '15 at 13:04

score 20 · Answer 3 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:50

20

As mentioned in leoll2's answer above, the Maths part of the question is the simultaneous solution of the two equations which relate the respective ages of Jennifer and Douglas:

$$J=D+21$$ $$J+6=5(D+6)$$

These provide the answer $D = -3/4$ years, or roughly $-9$ months, which could lead one to conclude what leoll2 concluded.

However,

1) It is not necessary that Jennifer's husband must have necessarily fathered Douglas. (No offence meant, I only mean it is not specified in the puzzle.)

2) Biologically, pregnancy doesn't always have to last 9 months. So, one can not deny the possibility of Douglas being born after 8 and a half months instead of nine.

So, Jennifer's husband could be anywhere in this world, or could even be dead. Particularly, if he hasn't fathered Douglas, and pregnancy did last exactly 9 months, then he must not be around at the time of conceiving (stark opposite conclusion from the same data).

This is not a well designed puzzle. Sorry for being a killjoy :(

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:50

Community

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answered Mar 18 '15 at 19:28

User Anonymous

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well you're no fun – basher Mar 18 '15 at 19:44
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@basher - I know, but I think I'm not oversimplifying :) – User Anonymous Mar 18 '15 at 19:47
Plus, the best part of having rep 1 is an immunity to possible down-votes :P – User Anonymous Mar 18 '15 at 19:48
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-1 The trick of solving a puzzle is understanding the puzzle, this puzzle clearly required thinking in generalized terms and this answer clearly fails at that. And if you actually feel sorry for being a 'killjoy', there is a simple solution: just don't post answers like this ;-) – David Mulder Mar 18 '15 at 23:20
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Yes, and as mentioned in my other comment, human gestation actually averages 280 days, which is up to a week beyond nine months, depending on which months are included. – Michael Mar 19 '15 at 16:37
I'm wondering who you felt would be offended lol these are not real people – Lightness Races in Orbit Mar 19 '15 at 17:21
"Particularly, if he hasn't fathered Douglas, and pregnancy did last exactly 9 months, then he must not be around at the time of conceiving (stark opposite conclusion from the same data)" This is incorrect. – Lightness Races in Orbit Mar 19 '15 at 17:21
@Michael - And I thought I was the only dork around here :P – User Anonymous Mar 19 '15 at 18:29
@LightnessRacesinOrbit - Why is it wrong? If he was around at that time (as in, he caught them in the act), either Jennifer, or Douglas' father, or both, could be dead :P – User Anonymous Mar 19 '15 at 18:33
@UserAnonymous: Who's to say he wasn't there? Watching, participating... You've simply assumed that the husband would not approve but there is no evidence to support your assumption. – Lightness Races in Orbit Mar 19 '15 at 18:38
@LightnessRacesinOrbit - Haha. Yes, right! How careless of me :P – User Anonymous Mar 20 '15 at 05:25

Where is Jennifer's husband?

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