Question

The highest possible age of an employee of company A is .......................

Hint:

In problems involving median age and ordered constraints, consider the ordering of median ages to determine the highest possible or lowest possible values for the required group.

Answer 1

Step 1: Identify the highest possible age for company A.

The median age of company A is 24, so the 16th employee (since there are 32 employees, we take the median at position 16th and 17th) has an age of 24.

The highest possible age of an employee in company A will be the age of the 16th employee, which is 24.

Step 2: Apply the age conditions.

Since the age of every employee in company A is strictly less than the age of every employee in company B, the highest possible age of any employee in company A must be strictly less than the lowest possible age in company B.

The median age of company B is 30, and so the highest possible age for company A is 29.

Step 3: Conclude the solution.

Thus, the highest possible age of an employee in company A is:

29