"Smoe is older than Joe"
What was the puzzle?
Since one of the clock looses and other gains 10 seconds per hour, that means one looses 240 seconds (4 minutes) & other gains 240 seconds (4 minutes) in a day.
Both the clocks are set at 12:00 PM correctly. One has to gain 6 hours (360 minutes) and other has to loose 6 hours (360 minutes) to show the same time again. At the speed of 4 minutes per day the would need 360/4 = 90 days to show the same time again.
On 90th day, they will come together to show 6:00. Exactly at 12 noon on 90th day one clock must be showing 6:00 PM and other must be showing 6:00 AM, if they have feature of showing AM/PM.
Now as per Joe it would be 47th birthday of Smoe on the day on which the clocks will show the same time. That means, the clocks are set correctly on the noon of 90 days prior to Smoe's birthday which is 1 May for sure but year yet to be known.
If the year is leap year then 90th day before 1st May will be on 1st February and if it's not a leap year then it would be on January 31. Since, they have set their clocks correctly at 12:00 on some day in January, the year must not be a leap year.
But if Smoe had been born in 1933, his 47th birthday would have been on May 1, 1980 which is leap year. Hence, Smoe must have born in 1932 and Joe in 1933.
Therefore, Smoe is older than Joe.
The story must be of 1979!
