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Today Puzzle #732

Puzzle No. 732 – Tuesday 5 May

The Partridge family members decided to buy a present for their parents. Each of them contributed £8. The total collection came to £24 more than the number of years that their parents had been married. If the number of sons and daughters are twin primes numbers, how years could the parents have been married?

Today’s #PuzzleForToday has been set by Dr Steve Humble MBE, Newcastle University

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Parents could have been married for either 40 years or 72 years.

Details of a possible solution.

Twin prime numbers come in two’s and as the name suggests have a gap of two between them. Generally 2 and 3 are not considered to be twin primes (sorry partridge family fans). Hence there are only two possible cases - 3 and 5, and 5 and 7. These primes give two possibilities for the number of years of marriage as either 40 years or 72 years.

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