Can You Guess The Age Of These Five Friends?

Our recent series of puzzles kicked off with that baffling brain-teaser about some woman named Cheryl and the mysterious date of her birth.

So, we figured it’s time to share another logic puzzle involving a birthday… except this time, five different people are describing their age in a maddeningly confusing way, rather than just one.

This puzzle comes from the website Maths Is Fun; a name you may not totally agree with after attempting to unravel the following.

We’ve changed the names to reflect those of television’s beloved Friends, just for funsies. (Apologies to Phoebe. There were only five spots!) Hint: the answers do not correctly reflect the age/age-differences of the characters from the show.

Chandler, Monica, Joey, Ross, and Rachel recently found out that all of their birthdays were on the same day, though they are different ages.

On their mutual birthday, they were jabbering away, flapping their gums about their recent discovery. And, lucky me, I was there. Some of the things that I overheard were...

• Ross said to Monica: "I'm nine years older than Rachel."
• Rachel said to Monica: "I'm seven years older than Chandler."
• Chandler said to Monica: "Your age is exactly 70% greater than mine."
• Monica said to Joey: "Rachel is younger than you."
• Joey said to Ross: "The difference between our ages is six years."
• Joey said to Chandler: "I'm ten years older than you."
• Joey said to Chandler: "Monica is younger than Ross."
• Monica said to Joey: "The difference between your age and Ross’ is the same as the difference between Ross’ and Rachel’s."

Since I knew these people -- and how old they were, I knew that they were not telling the whole truth.

After thinking about it, I realised that when one of them spoke to someone older, everything they said was true, but when speaking to someone younger, everything they said was false.

How old is each person?

You know the drill! Check back tomorrow for the answer. Share your working in the comments section!

UPDATE: Here's that solution you were looking for!