He felt a strange thrill. The problem hadn’t tricked him—it had invited him to think beyond the formula. For the first time, math felt less like memorizing and more like investigating.
“Easy,” Andrei muttered. Let the son be x , the father 3x . In 12 years: (3x + 12 = 2(x + 12)). He solved it: (3x + 12 = 2x + 24 \Rightarrow x = 12). Father 36, son 12. Done. culegere matematica clasa a 9 a
But the next problem stopped him cold. Problem 790: A different father is four times as old as his son. In 18 years, he will be only twice as old. But the sum of their current ages is a prime number. Find their ages. He felt a strange thrill
One rainy Thursday, he flipped to a random page. Problem 789: A father is three times as old as his son. In 12 years, he will be twice as old. Find their ages. “Easy,” Andrei muttered
Andrei hated the culegere . Its thick, blue cover—creased at the spine, coffee-stained on the back—sat on his desk like a small, mute tyrant. His father had bought it in September with the best intentions: “Three problems every night, and you’ll be top of the class.”
He checked twice. No mistake. He checked the answer key at the back—it only said “Impossible. Explain why.”
He had learned something the culegere never said out loud: sometimes the right answer is that there is no answer—and explaining why is the real solution.