Treasure Hunters Guild/Childproof

= Childproof (Found)=

Posting
A Challenge has been sniped! Sniping challenges is what our Guild scouts do best. They hide in the shadows and listen in on seemingly private affairs...then once the challenge is put forth, they relay the info to Guild headquarters and we offer it up to our hunters! Here's what our White Scout has found: Two old friends, RobertDonald and Avasta, who have not sailed together in years meet each other in the backroom at the Lord Nelson´s Arm Inn on Jorvik island. They strike a conversation and talk a lot about the past, present and what is to be about the future of the Midnight Ocean. Avasta remembers that RobertDonald had three daughters and asked how old were they now. RobertDonald always liked riddles and puzzles, and particularly being a pain in the booty, so he said: "Well, you know how much of a Scallywag I am, so I will tell you this. The sum of the ages of my daughters equals the latest in the Ocean's endeavours. Their product equals the number of rounds hammered out on the Whetting Stone Project (some more memorable ones being Haddock, Salmon, Parrot, Mudback...and who could forget Canvasback!). Avasta, who was not dumb at all, wished him fair winds and went home to figure out RobertDonald's riddle. The next day, confused, Avasta sends RobertDonald a homing pigeon with the message: "Mate, you forgot to tell me something. It just doesn´t make any sense!". "You are right!", replied RobertDonald "I forgot to tell you that the age of my oldest daughter is the same as the street number of the house in front of mine". Can you figure out the ages of his Daughters?

Contactee
Submissions are closed. This treasure was found by Valandir of the Sage Ocean. The prize has yet to be finalized...

Solution
This is the entire post by Valandir


 * The ages of the daughters are 2, 2, and 9.


 * This answer was yielded by a number of steps. The first step was to look at the "Whetting Stone Project". The names immediately yielded an analysis of the GCPP, based upon the fish name idea. From that, I assumed there were 6 rounds, and there were also 6 phases per round, which ended up with 36 rounds.


 * However, further analysis of the whole Whetting Stone Project led to Operation Whetstone, where 36 rounds of tests were made. The fish names didn't match up, and this is why the additional steps were taken to find another answer. The first analogy, I concluded, might be a hint as to the right methodology, or a total coincidence. Either way, Operation Whetstone leads us to 36 rounds.


 * The possible combinations for ages are then as follows:


 * Ages - Add to 2, 2, 9 - 13 | 2, 3, 6 - 11 | 4, 3, 3 - 10 | 1, 4, 9 - 14 | 1, 6, 6 - 13 | 1, 2, 18 - 21 | 1, 3, 12 - 16 | 1, 1, 36 - 38


 * Now, the key to figuring out this puzzle is the fact that Avasta could not figure out the ages of the children until RobertDonald told her, "I forgot to tell you that the age of my oldest daughter is the same as the street number of the house in front of mine."


 * Conceivably, Avasta already knew the number of the ocean's latest project, whatever it was. Therefore, she already knew the sum.


 * If she was able to figure out the ages of the children right after RobertDonald told her about the age of his oldest daughter, that means that before, she must have had two identical answers. A quick check of the numbers we have yields the following two sets: 1, 6, and 6 as one set, and 2, 2, and 9 as the next set.


 * RD's indication of "oldest daughter" would mean that there must be one child as the oldest. Therefore, 1, 6, and 6 would not have made sense to Avasta. Therefore, 2, 2, and 9 are the ages.

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To sate your curiousity:
 * Ocean's latest endeavor = Ocean's 13 (you've probably seen ads for it somewhere).
 * Whettingstone Project = Operation Whetstone. A series of 36 nuke tests.