Dividing Horses

[BobH]

Subject: Math

A farmer died leaving his 17 horses to his three sons.
When his sons opened up the Will it read:

My eldest son should get 1/2 (half) of total horses;
My middle son should be given 1/3rd (one-third) of the total horses;
My youngest son should be given 1/9th (one-ninth) of the total horses.

As it’s impossible to divide 17 into half or 17 by 3 or 17 by 9, the three sons started to fight with each other.
So, they decided to go to a farmer friend who they considered quite smart, to see if he could work it out for them.

The farmer friend read the Will patiently, after giving due thought, he brought one of his own horses over and added it to the 17. That increased the total to 18 horses.

Now, he divided the horses according to their fathers Will.

Half of 18 = 9. So he gave the eldest son 9 horses.
1/3rd of 18 = 6. So he gave the middle son 6 horses.
1/9th of 18 = 2. So he gave the youngest son 2 horses.

Now add up how many horses they have:
Eldest son……..9
Middle son…….6
Youngest son…2
TOTAL IS…….17.
Now this leaves one horse over, so the farmer friend takes his horse back to his farm.
Problem Solved!

That’s what I call clever Mathematics.

[HansV]

Very good!

[BobH]

As is so often the case

Spoiler

the middle child was not treated fairly.

[Rudi]

Nice problem solver
What is wrong with the middle sons portion?

[steveh]

Subject: Math

Middle son…….6
Youngest son…2
TOTAL IS…….17.
Now this leaves one horse over, so the farmer friend takes his horse back to his farm.
Problem Solved!

That’s what I call clever Mathematics.

Hi Bob

That reminds me of one that our math's teacher told us many years ago

3 friends are lodging together and decide to buy a second hand TV, they go to the shop and one TV is marked up at £30 so they all chip in £10 each and buy it from the assistant.

The owner of the shop notices this sale and says to the assistant, I thought I told you to mark that TV down to £25 now chase after those guys and give them a £5 refund.

The assistant is fuming and decides to pocket £2 and give each of the guys £1 back so they have now each paid £9 for the TV, the assistant has £2 so 3 x £9 + £2 is £29 so where is the other £1?

[HansV]

Ha ha! Good one too!

[Rudi]

If the assistant knew this one he could have scored another £1.

[BobH]

[BobH]

Nice problem solver
What is wrong with the middle sons portion?

Sorry, Rudi. My mistake. Doing the calcs in my head I came up with the wrong answer.

Here is(are?) the actual math(s):

Dividing Horses.jpg

The problem arises because the father didn't allocate all the horses. By adding a horse the sons' portions come out even. The extra horse comes from the 0.094444 portion that was not allocated. Because eighteen can be factored by a half, a third , ninth and by one, no horse need be harmed. Not the case if you start with 17 because it is not divisible evenly by any number but one and itself.

Had they agreed to share whole horses and pay differentials in money, there would have been no problem, but I digress.

PS: Are maths plural to the British?

[Leif]

I believe it is 'maths' as it is short for 'mathematics'.

And yes, we have lots of them

[BobH]

I believe it is 'maths' as it is short for 'mathematics'.

And yes, we have lots of them

So, that means that maths are difficult for some, or maths is difficult for some?

Putting an 's' on math is foreign to my sense of the language. I view it as a collective noun - to include all branches of mathematics - that I see it as singular, just like a crowd (of many people) is still only one crowd, therefore singular.

[Rudi]

Here in RSA we also say "maths".
It's indoctrinated into us from young because when we attend mathematics classes at school, we NEVER did just ONE sum...there was always a BUNCH of sums to complete...so hence know as "maths".

[StuartR]

Maths is an interesting topic that I studied at school. The word is an abbreviation for "mathematics" which is a singular noun that happens to end with an S.

[HansV]

The fath cath sath on the math...

[Rudi]

The fath cath sath on the math...

Hans, not everybody can understand Dutch here in the lounge...I suggest you speak English for the benefit of all.

[BobH]

Thank you, all.

Maths is difficult, eh?

Two great peoples separated by a common language. Go figure, eh.

[BenCasey]

3 friends are lodging together and decide to buy a second hand TV, they go to the shop and one TV is marked up at £30 so they all chip in £10 each and buy it from the assistant.

The owner of the shop notices this sale and says to the assistant, I thought I told you to mark that TV down to £25 now chase after those guys and give them a £5 refund.

The assistant is fuming and decides to pocket £2 and give each of the guys £1 back so they have now each paid £9 for the TV, the assistant has £2 so 3 x £9 + £2 is £29 so where is the other £1?

The shop got £25.
The assistant got £2
The guys got £1 each.
Total £30.
Apples and Oranges, eh?

[HansV]

Or, put in another (but equivalent) way:

In the end, each guy paid £9, so together they paid £27.
Of this amount, the shop got £25 and the assistant pocketed £2.