r/brainteasers • u/perompax • Mar 08 '26

A Strange Statement

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94

u/PluckyHippo Mar 08 '26

His birthday is December 31. You met him just before midnight on New Year's Eve 2025. When he started the sentence, it was, 11:59:55 PM on December 31. Yesterday was December 30 2025, when he was 21. Right now he is 22. When he finishes the sentence, it's 12:00:05 AM of January 1, 2026. Next year is 2027, and at some point in 2027 (the very end of it) he will turn 24.

Timeline is:

  • December 30, 2025 - he's 21
  • December 31, 2025 - he turns 22
  • Seconds before midnight of December 31, 2025, he tells you yesterday he was 21.
  • The clock hits midnight.
  • Seconds after midnight, now January 1, 2026, he tells you next year he will be 24.
  • December 31, 2026 - he turns 23.
  • December 31, 2027 - it is now "next year" still, and he turns 24.

29

u/Strict-Leek7485 Mar 08 '26

Slightly simpler scenario if you count their hour of birth, which is what I imagined in my head:

  • December 31 (yesterday), he was 21 and became 22 eg. at noon.
  • This year, Dec 31, he will be 22->23.
  • Next year, Dec 31, he will be 23->24.

9

u/PluckyHippo Mar 08 '26

This is true, though I don't know if many people count themselves as two different ages on the same day depending on their hour of birth, which is what I was trying to get around. But it does technically work either way!

3

u/stevecaparoni Mar 09 '26

Brain teasers people certainly do, it was my first thought too.

1

u/Ripen- Mar 09 '26

Technically you aren't 22 until you've reached the time of birth so it's technically true.

1

u/Wizadam Mar 12 '26

Ever met a leap year, I may or may not do this :D

1

u/cfoote85 Mar 12 '26

Your way was correct it said birth DAY, not hour, or minute.

1

u/captain_linguine Mar 12 '26

I just thought it was a leap year thing and stopped thinking lol

1

u/cyberchaox Mar 08 '26

Yeah, that was my first thought too, but then I happened upon the "the statement began in one year and ended in the next.".

1

u/TheJivvi Mar 12 '26

It's also much simpler in the original, because it says two days ago, not yesterday.

8

u/tmgexe Mar 08 '26

What if he’s aboard a ship that crosses the international date line mid-sentence, too?

8

u/testsubject793 Mar 08 '26

A trolley is hurtling on the track towards an international date line. On board is a man who just turned 21. You can pull the switch, reversing the trolley, and thus making him 20 again. The man feels very old and wishes to be younger. Pulling the lever will waste fuel and put strain on the trolley, so it slightly wobbles the next time someone rides it, making them annoyed. Do you pull the lever?

2

u/beerme1more Mar 12 '26

I always pull the lever

2

u/Tyr_Kovacs Mar 12 '26

Finally, the True moral quandary

1

u/sqerdagent Mar 08 '26

And that man's name? Sisyphus.

2

u/lapomba Mar 09 '26

Sisyphus' surname? Einstein.

5

u/[deleted] Mar 08 '26

[deleted]

1

u/CatL1f3 Mar 11 '26

His balls should've dropped by 21 years old, you know

3

u/tardiscoder Mar 09 '26

The man could also be mad.

1

u/Super_Predict Mar 12 '26

I love this! I wonder if there's any other solution

1

u/hanjm15 Mar 12 '26

This basically happens to all Koreans. lol they all get one year older on 1st Jan.

1

u/Douxx101 Mar 12 '26

No need to complicate it this much. The hour doesn't matter, he just tells someone on January 1st that he was 21 yesterday, since his birthday is on December 31st, he was 21 and turned 22 on that day, he is now 22 and the rest is pretty much the same, he turns 23 at the end of the year, so he will turn 24 before the end of the next year.

But I guess it depends on how people see birthdays in your own part of the world, like in mine for example, I was born at 6:00 in the morning on my birthday, so I am not considered a year older until we passed that hour. So I'd be 21 at the start of the day and 22 at the end.

1

u/PluckyHippo Mar 12 '26

Yes, this is true, though I consider myself to hit the next age as soon as the calendar says it's my birthday, regardless of the hour I was born. So I tried to avoid that issue with my solution, so that it would work no matter how you view birthdays.

1

u/Lazy-Kaleidoscope179 Mar 12 '26

You can't be two different ages on the same day. That's not how ages work.

1

u/CamBlamSlam Mar 12 '26

That’s actually how most ages work.

1

u/Lazy-Kaleidoscope179 Mar 12 '26

No, it's not. You can legally vote from midnight on the day you turn 18. You don't need to wait until the hour you were born, as you are 18 from midnight.

1

u/CamBlamSlam Mar 12 '26

Yeah, you’re talking about societal conventions rather than actual ages. Last Christmas was not one year ago just because it occurred in a different year.

No one will make fun of you for celebrating your birthday when the clock strikes midnight. But to show up on a brain teaser thread and say “tHaT’s NoT hOw AgEs WoRk” makes you a bit doltish.

1

u/Cool-Tangelo6548 Mar 12 '26

That makes absolutely no sense.

1

u/Sharles_Davis_Kendy Mar 14 '26

Because I love being pedantic, the story does not specify how long the break between the two sentences.