Today I was brought down to earth when I encountered a trivial mathematical problem that I can not explain. Here it is:-
A farmer who was a horse
breeder, died leaving 3 sons to inherit his estate.
In
his will he had stated:-
“I
want to leave all my horses to my 3 sons, and because they have contributed to
the farm to different extents, I want them distributed as follows:-
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.”
After
his death, the boys discovered that there were 17 horses on the farm, and they
could see that it was impossible to
divide 17 into half, or 17 by 3, or 17 by 9.
So
they decided to go to a farmer friend who they considered quite smart, to see
if he could help them solve this problem.
The
farmer friend read the will patiently, and after giving due thought, he went
home and 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.
This
added up to a total of 17 horses, so the
farmer friend took his own horse back to his farm, and everyone was happy - problem
Solved!
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