Ages

[Dee-M-See]

3 Friends shared 24 sweets, each getting a number equal to what his age had been 3 years previously
The youngest said he would halve his share keep one share and divide the other half among his two friends
But in order to do that the middle friend should promise to do the same
Followed finally by the oldest
When they had done this each friend was left with 8 sweets
What are the ages of the friends?

(Who dreams these problems up?)

[kempie]

If they each equally divided "the other half" among the other two friends then the three friends are 11 years old.

[mark01]

Friends are aged 13, 7 and 4. (call them a, b and c).

After 1st division a has 14, b has 8 and c has 2.

After 2nd division a has 16, b has 4 and c has 4.

After 3rd division a has 8, b has 8 and c has 8.

best of luck

[Dee-M-See]

The answer was 7 10 16

[mark01]

Of course I have forgotten to add the 3 years back on to their ages:
13+3 = 16 7+3 = 10 4+3 = 7

[esmerelda3]

just worked it out only to see that it had already been done But I agree with the answer 7, 10 and 16 Cheers E
But I should be interested to know where it came from. I am better at these than the cryptic crosswords Thanks

[Dee-M-See]

The puzzles come from a daily radio quiz, although some of the problems are made up by the listeners,so that some of the problems and answers are a bit weird
Thanks to everyone for their answers