Enrichment problem
Once there lived a farmer, his wife, and their three sons. When the farmer died, his will said that the eldest son was to receive one-half of what he owned, the middle son was to receive one-third, and the youngest son was to receive one-ninth. All the farmer owned, however was seventeen horses. And try as they might, the three sons could not figure out any way to divide the seventeen horses by their father’s wishes.
Their mother however, went to the neighboring farm and borrowed a horse. Then with a total of eighteen horses, she gave the eldest son one-half, or nine horses. She gave the middle son one-third or six of the horses. And she gave the youngest son one-ninth, or two of the horses. She returned the last horse to their neighbor.
Nine plus six plus two makes the seventeen horses their father left them. How did she do it?
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Educational media
Friday, April 28, 2006
Dividing the horses
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Answer:
½ plus 1/3 plus 1/9 does not equal one or all of anything.
The mother used their common denominator, which was eighteen, and changed the fractions to 9/18 plus 6/18 plus 2/18 which equaled 17/18.
So by borrowing the eighteenth horse, she was creating situation that match the fraction.
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