Wednesday, August 14, 2002

Tricky Track
Three High schools-Washington, Lincoln and Roosevelt-competed in a track meet. Each school entered one man, and one only, in each event. Susan, a student of Lincoln High, sat in the bleachers to cheer her boyfriend, the school's shot-put champion.

When Susan returned home later in the day, her father asked how her school had done.

"We won the shot-put all right," she said,"but Washington High won the track meet. They had a final score of 22. We finished with 9. So did Roosevelt High."

"How were the events scored?" her father asked.

"I don't remember exactly," Susan replied, "but there was a certain number of points for the winner of each event, a smaller number for the second place and still a smaller number for third place. The numbers were the same for all events." (By "number" Susan of course meant a positive integer.)

"How many events were there all together?"

"Gosh, I don't know, Dad. All I watched was the shot-put."

"Was there a high jump?" asked Susan's brother.

Susan nodded.

"Who won it?"

Susan didn't know.

Incredible as it may seem, this last question can be answered with only the information given. Which school won the high jump?

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