Question

Jim’s father is older than 40 but younger than 50. if you divide his age by 2,4,5,8 or 10, there will be a remainder of one how old is Jim’s father?

Answer 1

Answer: He is 41 years old.

Explanation:

All of these numbers go evenly into 40 so for there to be a remainder of 1, just make it 41 years old.

Answer 2

41

Explanation:

Because there's a remainder of one with a divisor of 2, that means the number must be odd. (i.e. 42 wouldn't have a remainder, or 44, etc.)

So that leaves 41, 43, 45, 47, & 49 as possible answers.

Now try the divisor 10, the largest one, because it's easiest: 10 goes into 41 and leaves a remainder of one.

This by itself tells us that the answer is 41, because 10 doesn't go into any of the possible numbers with a remainder of 1.

But we'd better just check the others:

• Does 4 work? Yes: 4 goes into 41 10 times and leaves remainder 1
• 5? Yes: 5 goes into 41 8 times with remainder 1.
• 8? Yes: 8 goes into 41 5 times, remainder 1.