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        riddles >> hard >> BIRTHDAY TWINS
        
(Message started by: Macduff472y on Dec 27^th, 2002, 2:28pm)

Title: BIRTHDAY TWINS
Post by Macduff472y on Dec 27^th, 2002, 2:28pm

Sheila and He-Man are not each other's twin.

Title: Re: BIRTHDAY TWINS
Post by Ivan on Jan 1^st, 2003, 10:47am

on 12/27/02 at 14:28:03, Macduff472y wrote:

Sheila and He-Man are not each other's twin.

Even if they are not each other's twins, then why were they born at the same time but one celebrates the birthday two days later?

Title: Re: BIRTHDAY TWINS
Post by i_m_n_idiot on Jan 4^th, 2003, 10:29pm

they have another sibling
they come from a set of triplets ;D

Title: Re: BIRTHDAY TWINS
Post by Macduff472y on Jan 5^th, 2003, 6:15pm

The riddle specifically says that they are twins?

Title: Re: BIRTHDAY TWINS
Post by william wu on Jan 5^th, 2003, 10:49pm

Yes it does:

Quote:

Sheila and He-Man are twins; Sheila is the OLDER twin. Assume they were born immediately after each other, an infinitesimally small - but nonzero - amount of time apart. During one year in the course of their lives, Sheila celebrates her birthday two days AFTER He-Man does. How is this possible?

Title: Re: BIRTHDAY TWINS
Post by towr on Jan 6^th, 2003, 2:53am

it's a remarkably short two-day year..?

Title: Re: BIRTHDAY TWINS
Post by organica on Jan 6^th, 2003, 11:29am

Hint : think leap-years...

Gordon k

Title: Re: BIRTHDAY TWINS
Post by towr on Jan 6^th, 2003, 11:51am

Pray tell, how can that explain Sheila being older, yet having her birthday later?

Title: Re: BIRTHDAY TWINS
Post by organica on Jan 6^th, 2003, 12:53pm

It accounts for the expansion of "infinitesimal" to "2 days later". Then all we need is to switch the "infinitesimal" bit around - by contriving a way time can nominally Go Backwards by a shorter amount (one hour, say...)

Gordon k

Title: Re: BIRTHDAY TWINS
Post by redPEPPER on Jan 6^th, 2003, 3:05pm

Organica, you've got a solution?

I thought about leap years. That fits the two days gap, but that doesn't explain why the older twin has her birthday after her younger brother.

I also thought about daylight saving time. That would explain a position switch, but now that wouldn't explain the two days gap.

Combining both doesn't work either, as we don't change time on february 28 around midnight...

I also thought about the Gregorian calendar reform, but that accounts for a 10 days difference, and doesn't explain the position switch either.

Does it involve the international date line maybe? Hmm, you can combine that with the DST switcheroo, but that would only be an almost 24h difference, not two days.

Or are we looking too far? Sheila celebrated her birthday later because, for some reason, she felt like it? Um...

Or are they using different calendars? Did Sheila travel at ultra-high speeds that slowed time down for her?

Title: Re: BIRTHDAY TWINS
Post by william wu on Jan 6^th, 2003, 6:06pm

redPEPPER: you can combine two things in that list of suggestions to get a solution ... forget about daylight savings time and complex things like weird relativistic effects

... there is a thread on this problem already somewhere

Title: Re: BIRTHDAY TWINS
Post by organica on Jan 6^th, 2003, 10:57pm

It's the international dateline thing I was thinking about - like
the kids are born in a plane that crosses into the earlier timezone at midnight. This "reverses" the order of the births, and then we just need it to be midnight on Feb 28th in a leap-year to get to the eventual 2 days birthday-difference.

But ww's right, there's another thread at:
http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~wwu/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=riddles_hard;action=display;num=1027929033
with a couple of variants I hadn't thought of...

g k

Title: Re: BIRTHDAY TWINS
Post by RexJacobus on Jan 22^nd, 2003, 4:22am

This thread reminds me of the time back in the early 70s, the NY Yankees had an outfielder named Ron Swoboda. While he was playing with the team on a West Coast trip his wife went into labor early back in NY. The announcement by the Angels PA system (made late in the game) was, "Congratulations, Ron Swoboda, your new son was born tomorrow morning."

:)

Rex

Title: Re: BIRTHDAY TWINS
Post by Nathan on Oct 26^th, 2004, 9:08am

sheila is born on the 1st March 00:00:00 AM
HE-MAN is born 29th Feb 23:59:59 PM

Sheila is older as her birthday happens every year so when she is 4 heman is 1 when she is 8 he man is 2 etc etc...

This effectively makes he-man younger although the birthdate suggests otherwise

but where his birthday falls where a leap year isnt in play, he would celebrate his birthday on the 28th Feb which would make it poss for sheila to celebrate her birthday 2 days after her brother even though he's younger than her provided shes travelling though through a time zone where the day would effectively be a day behind he-man!!!

but hey that probably a load of rubbish.

oh well c'est la vie

Title: Re: BIRTHDAY TWINS
Post by Nathan on Oct 26^th, 2004, 9:16am

ok, that can happen any YEAR BUT THE LEAP YEAR THING STILL APPLIES.

MUST NEED SOME SLEEP

Title: Re: BIRTHDAY TWINS
Post by ozy on Nov 11^th, 2004, 2:54am

Sheila was born 28 feb. at 23:59:59

He-Man was born 1 march. at 00:00:01

every 4 years feb . will be 29 days

so Sheila birth day would be 28 feb then one day pass to be 29 then another day pass to be 1 march the birth day of He-Man

Title: Re: BIRTHDAY TWINS
Post by Icarus on Nov 11^th, 2004, 4:44pm

That places He-Man's birthday 2 days after Sheila's. But the Riddle asks how Sheila's birthday can be 2 days after He-Man's.

Title: Re: BIRTHDAY TWINS
Post by BagofTricks on Nov 18^th, 2004, 9:45pm

what if their mother was on a plane and both sheila and he-man were born on either side of the date line such that
sheila was born on 1st march and
he-man, who was born on the other side of the date line had his b'day as 28th february.

so he-man has his b'day on 28th feb and sheila on 1st march.

on any leap year, there wud be a gap of two days in their b'days
28th fr he-man, 29th the extra day and 1st march for sheila..

is this correct or am i blabbering

Title: Re: BIRTHDAY TWINS
Post by rmsgrey on Nov 19^th, 2004, 6:11am

That's correct

If you read the thread, there's a link given to an earlier thread which discussed the riddle in more detail.

Title: Re: BIRTHDAY TWINS
Post by Icarus on Nov 20^th, 2004, 7:10am

Yes, and you will also find a variation of the solution that does not involve the date line (hint: This variation requires the twins to be born at night).