What is the answer to the puzzle Blondes by Oldaque P de Freitas?

Answer 1

There are three children. The product of the 3 ages is 36. The sum of the ages is the house number across the street which we are not given (but the person talking to the blond mother) can see the number. In the list below I have shown the possible ages of the children (starting with the oldest) and next to it the sum of the ages. There are only 8 possibilities.

36 + 1 + 1 = 38 Possibility A

18 + 2 + 1 = 21 Possibility B

12 + 3 + 1 = 16 Possibility C

9 + 4 + 1 = 14 Possibility D

6 + 6 + 1 = 13 Possibility E

9 + 2 + 2 = 13 Possibility F

6 + 3 + 2 = 11 Possibility G

4 + 3 + 3 = 10 Possibility H

The second woman would not have said that there was not enough information to solve the puzzle since she saw the house number across the street and would have a unique solution if Possibilities A or B or C or D or G or H existed. Therefore the house number across the street was 13. Both possibilities E and F have a set of twins. When the blond woman mentioned that her oldest daughter had blue eyes we can eliminate Possibility E since both twins would be the same age. So the answer has to be Possibility F: the girl children ages are 9, 2, and 2.