Dear Math Central,
I am not sure how to tackle this problem at all.

Augustus de Morgan wrote in 1864, "At some point in my life, the square of my age was the same as the year." When was he born?

I am an eighth grade student. Thanks for your help. Pat



Hi Pat,

Since Augustus de Morgan made this statement in 1864 and he used the past tense, the years he is talking about is before 1864. The year in question is a square. Use your calculator and find the square root of 1864. 1864 is not a square so you won't get an integer as the square root. Try the largest integer that is smaller than the square root of 1864. Is that a reasonable candidate for his age in the year in question? What about the next smallest integer? Is this a possibility?

Cheers,
Penny

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