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24 February 2006

Story Problem (Once in a Lifetime) →[More:]Today I'm the same age as the last two digits of my birth year. How old am I?

For extra credit: Find the generalized solution to this problem.

For extra extra credit: Find the oldest and youngest ages this will be true.
post by: warbaby at: 11:01 | 54 comments
53?
posted by jrossi4r 24 February | 11:02
Does this mean that today is your birthday?
posted by Frisbee Girl 24 February | 11:08
Hang on...almost got it...*scribbles furiously*..sorry, what time did you say the first train left the station at??
posted by oh pollo! 24 February | 11:22
Well, the youngest would be 3. I suppose the oldest reasonable age would be 103 if only the last two digits count, if not than 53.

For this solution, I would generally use Excel. As I did this time. Does that count as a generalized solution?
posted by mullacc 24 February | 11:22
You could be 3 or 53, and that's it, really. If 2 were relatively prime to 100, there'd be only one solution (in the range 0-99 which could be "last two digits" of a year) to 2006-x=x (mod 100), but it isn't and we pick up an extra one.





posted by Wolfdog 24 February | 11:28
By the way, six times my age is three more than the value of the last two digits of my birthyear, when that year is written in hexadecimal. What age might I be?
posted by Wolfdog 24 February | 11:31
I don't understand Wolfdog's mathmagician stuff. But I see that the pattern of the results are either 2 possible ages in even years and zero in odd years. To figure out that ages take the last two digits of the year and divide by two. If you come to a whole number X (like 3, but not 3.5), the answer will be X and X+50.
posted by mullacc 24 February | 11:31
My age is always the first two digits of the year plus the last two.
posted by Eideteker 24 February | 11:36
So you must be looking forward to 2100 AD, hm?
posted by Wolfdog 24 February | 11:38
Yes, today is my birthday. Why does everybody always say "Oh, you're a Pices" in descending tones like "Oh, you're a leper"?
posted by warbaby 24 February | 11:40
PISCES - Feb 19-Mar 20:
You have a vivid imagination & often think you are being followed by the CIA or FBI. You have minor influence over your associates & people resent you for your flaunting of your power. You lack confidence & are generally a coward. Pisces people do terrible things to small animals.

Heh. ;-) From here.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WARBABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
posted by mygothlaundry 24 February | 11:45
Why does everybody always say "Oh, you're a Pices" in descending tones like "Oh, you're a leper"?

Man, try being a sagittarius. People avoid us like we have tuberculosis.

And happy birthday!
posted by cmonkey 24 February | 11:51
Well, this is just weird given my username and that I'm a capricorn:
CAPRICORN - Dec 22-Jan 19:
You are conservative & afraid of taking risks. You don't do much of anything & are lazy. There has never been a Capricorn of any importance. Capricorns should avoid standing still too long as they tend to take root & become trees.


But Hoppy Birthday warbaby!
posted by tr33hggr 24 February | 11:51
Happy birthday agent #001!
posted by matildaben 24 February | 11:52
Oops, I lied; six times my age is three LESS than the value of the last two hex digits in my birth year.
posted by Wolfdog 24 February | 11:52
Hoppy Burfday, warbaby! I hope it's the bestest!

Really, cmonkey? I've never noticed a negative response.
posted by deborah 24 February | 11:59
Man, try being a sagittarius. People avoid us like we have tuberculosis.

We intimidate them. Must be the bow and arrow.

Happy birthday, warbaby. An electric birthday spanking for you!
posted by jrossi4r 24 February | 12:00
Jeez, be all mathmystical about it, why dontcha? Damn fish people.

Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
posted by danostuporstar 24 February | 12:01
For people born before between 1900 and 2000, the answer is (y - 1900)/ 2 (where y is this year).
posted by Capn 24 February | 12:06
Many happy returns Warbaby. You have one Ramos Gin Fizz on account at the Roosevelt hotel in New Orleans, tell em "Daddy Longlegs sent ya." This offer is valid through January 1973, should you have extra gas in the time machine there is a standing bounty of $10,000 in mint condition Krugerrands to insert yourself into the Yalta conference picture, double bonus if you appear to be about to kiss Churchill on the top of his round baby head.
posted by Divine_Wino 24 February | 12:06
Happy Birthday to one of my favorite bunnies!

*hugs the warbaby*
posted by Frisbee Girl 24 February | 12:07
Many happy returns of the day, warbaby! My moon is in Pisces!

Man, try being a sagittarius. People avoid us like we have tuberculosis.

I usually have the opposite response.
posted by Specklet 24 February | 12:07
Happy 53rd! :-D

Man, try being a sagittarius.
Nah, Geminis LOVE you Sags. But I'm also half Taurus and so that makes me only like you. But LIKE like.

(bonus: when's my birthday? Bonus bonus: How many cats are going to St. Ives?)
posted by WolfDaddy 24 February | 12:11
I usually have the opposite response.
You avoid people with TB like their sagitarians?
posted by Capn 24 February | 12:18
happy birthday, warbaby!
posted by gaspode 24 February | 12:19
Wolfdaddy: I'm going to guess May 21 and 2801.
posted by jrossi4r 24 February | 12:22
Happy Birthday, Bro.
posted by rainbaby 24 February | 12:32
Man, try being a sagittarius. People avoid us like we have tuberculosis.


centaurs reprazent, yo.

(i can talk like that 'cause i'm so goddam street...)
posted by dersins 24 February | 12:40
jrossi4r: right ... and wrong.

As I was going to St. Ives,
I met a man with seven wives.
Each wife had seven sacks,
Each sack had seven cats,
Each cat had seven kits.
Kits, cats, sacks, and wives,
How many were going to St. Ives?

The answer to my St. Ives question is none. The answer to the poem's riddle is (explicitly) one. :-D
posted by WolfDaddy 24 February | 12:47
Really, cmonkey? I've never noticed a negative response.

Yep. I've lost count of how many women I've met who recoil slightly when they find out my birthday.

"Oh, you're a sagittarius?"
"I guess."
"Oh, you're trouble."
posted by cmonkey 24 February | 12:55
That's Agent #000 to you, #002
posted by warbaby 24 February | 12:55
You're all breaking my head with the math, but I've also got Talking Heads stuck in there now, and that's cool.

Happy birthday, warbaby!

Oh, and sagitarriuses (sagitarrii?) aren't trouble, scorpios are.
posted by amro 24 February | 12:59
Google failed me, wolfdaddy!
posted by jrossi4r 24 February | 13:02
We like cmonkey because he's trouble.

I avoid people who believe that astrology has anything to do with anything and is more meaningful than a parlor game.
posted by matildaben 24 February | 13:12
"Oh, you're a sagittarius?"
"I guess."
"Oh, you're trouble."

See, this is what I would say, only with quite a different inflection than I imagine you mean.

Nah, Geminis LOVE you Sags. But I'm also half Taurus and so that makes me only like you. But LIKE like.

Geminis I avoid like tuberculosis even though I'm a Sag. Too much heartbreak with those guys. But Taurus is good, my rising is in Taurus.
posted by Specklet 24 February | 13:13
Geminis I avoid like tuberculosis

*cries*
posted by Capn 24 February | 13:17
Triple sag, here. That could explain a LOT.
posted by Frisbee Girl 24 February | 13:22
And I like just about everybody. Until they piss me off. But then I get distracted by something and forget that I'm supposed to be angry and everything pretty much works out.
posted by Frisbee Girl 24 February | 13:26
Anyone here know my sign?

(Happy birthday, warbaby)
posted by Hugh Janus 24 February | 13:28
That's a lotta Sag, Fris!

Hugh, you're... a Capricorn.
posted by Specklet 24 February | 13:34
Hey, look!

≡ Click to see image ≡

It's an anti-war baby!

Happy birthday warbaby, bunnypin conspiracy king!!!

(mygoth, that horoscope page is hilarious.)
posted by taz 24 February | 13:44
There has never been a Capricorn of any importance.
Oh yeah? How about Jesus, motherfuckers!
posted by dodgygeezer 24 February | 14:02
Jesus was a Capricorn, he ate organic foods.
He believed in love and peace and never wore no shoes.
Long hair, beard and sandals and a funky bunch of friends.
Reckon they'd just nail him up if He come down again.

'Cos everybody's got to have somebody to look down on.
Who they can feel better than at anytime they please.
Someone doin' somethin' dirty, decent folks can frown on.
If you can't find nobody else, then help yourself to me.

Get back, John!

Egg Head's cousin Red Neck's cussin' hippies for their hair.
Others laugh at straights who laugh at freaks who laugh at squares.
Some folks hate the whites who hate the blacks who hate the clan.
Most of us hate anything that we don't understand.

'Cos everybody's got to have somebody to look down on.
Who they can feel better than at anytime they please.
Someone doin' somethin' dirty, decent folks can frown on.
If you can't find nobody else, then help yourself to me.

Help yourself, brother.
Help yourself, Gentlemen.
Help yourself Reverend.

-
Kris Kristofferson
posted by Divine_Wino 24 February | 14:18
So, you're a Korean Warbaby?
posted by rainbaby 24 February | 14:31
happy birthday warbaby!!!

If a train going to chicago is traveling at 60 miles per hour, and a train going to los angeles is traveling at 45 miles per hour, and the train to chicago started on Tuesday and the train to LA started on Sunday, and there are 145 people on the Chicago train and 248 people on the LA train, and 7 cars on the chicago train and 8 cars on the LA train, what brand of coffee do they serve in the dining car?
posted by amberglow 24 February | 14:46
Chock Full O' Nuts.
posted by Divine_Wino 24 February | 15:07
er, no, Huguenot.

*waits for inevitable jokes*
posted by warbaby 24 February | 15:13
Try being an Aries and sharing your sign with a fucking Dodge truck.

No love for the Aries. Sigh.
posted by King of Prontopia 24 February | 15:14
This is the weirdest birthday thread ever. That is all.
posted by danostuporstar 24 February | 15:28
So you must be looking forward to 2100 AD, hm?

Umm... I doubt I'll be alive then. The men in my family seldom live to 50.
posted by Eideteker 24 February | 15:42
But you'd only be 21.
posted by Wolfdog 24 February | 15:47
So do I come back to life after 70 years of rotting? Eww.
posted by Eideteker 24 February | 16:27
My age is always the first two digits of the year plus the last two.


Isn't this impossible unless you were born on January 1st?
posted by mullacc 24 February | 16:41
Sorry, I celebrate New Year's on my birthday. It's just easier.
posted by Eideteker 24 February | 16:50
← Last night at the bar... || OMG! Fat cat! →

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