Thursday, March 9, 2017

mathematics - Find two numbers based on either their product or their sum?


A friend of mine told me the following puzzle and I could not solve it.



Sam chooses a positive integer $x$, and Peter chooses another number $y$. They do this secretly, so that Peter does not know Sam's number and vice versa.


They then tell Sarah their numbers (secretly again). Sarah writes the sum $x+y$ on one paper and the product $xy$ on another. She then shows them one paper randomly. The value on the paper was $2002$. They know this is either the sum or the product, but they don't know which one!


After this, the following conversation take place:



Sam: I don't know your number.


Peter: I don't know your number either.


Sam: Now I know your number.


Peter: Now I know yours too.



How do I figure out what the two numbers are?





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