Following my posting of a Tortuously Tricky Triangle Puzzle, my friend Peter Traneus Anderson (a.k.a. Traneus Rex) sent me a short, sharp, and simple email saying:
Find ‘a’ and ‘b’ such that (a + b) = (a * b) = 2
It wasn’t long before I replied saying, “You are making my brain ache.” Shortly thereafter, Peter revealed the answer, at which time I slapped my forehead while exclaiming, “Of course!”
How about you? Do you know the answer?
(FYI I just posted the answer in a Cunning Calculators follow-on blog)
Since I could not figure it out, I decided to use my Photomath app. Here is an image of the result.
You will kick yourself when you see the answer 🙂
I did a bit of algebra and used the quadratic formula to figure it out. Very sneaky…
I’m going to give this a couple of days, then post the answer as a comment for all to see 🙂
Very nice puzzle.
Do you know the answer? (You can email me at max@clivemaxfield.com if you don’t want to post it here — also, I was planning on including the answer in a new column tomorrow)