Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

Here is the solution of the puzzle I posed: People born in the years 1560, 1640, 1722, 1806, 1892, and 1980 (there are others) have the following in common. They were (or will be) x years old in the year x². My nephew Beau, for example, was born in 1980. He will be 45 years old in 2025. Forty-five times 45 equals 2025. On the assumption that nobody born in 1892 is still alive (someone born in that year would be 117 this year), the only people in the world today who satisfy the equation are those born in 1980. I always knew that Beau was special! By the way, I learned about this puzzle while reading the 10th edition of Patrick J. Hurley's book A Concise Introduction to Logic (Belmont, CA: Thomson Higher Education, 2008). Hurley has a page devoted to Augustus De Morgan (1806-1871), who, according to Hurley, "liked to point out that he was x years old in the year x² (43 in 1849)."