Miller's Fee
In a Tennessee mountain community the miller retains as his fee one-tenth of the corn the mountaineer farmers deliver for grinding. How much corn must a farmer deliver to get 100 pounds of cornmeal back provided there is no loss ?
Labels: mathemagic, thinktank
posted by ToM at
4:40 AM
19 Comments:
Rounded off, 111 pounds.
9/10*x=100 therefore x=111,11:D
Ah, but you are assuming that the weight of corn that goes in to the grinder is equal to the weight of the cornmeal coming out.
Whether it is or not is not specified.
Pedantic Numpty
FANTASTIC POINT, anon above! you should take into account the amount of corn oil, particulate, and other items into that. So... I would actually say to get 100 lbs of dry cornmeal back, he would have to deliver at least 140~ lbs
well...its obvious we cannot account for that because it isnt mentioned in the problem:S...probably this is a badly explained problem which is missing those importatnt facts...
I thought Pedantic Numby was taking the mick in a humourous way. He/she made me laugh. Good selection of name too.
The only thing that bugs me is that the problem seems to be unbelievably simple. What's the catch?
If there's "no loss" in turning the corn to cormeal, the answer has to be 100 / .9 pounds of corn.
That makes 111.111... pounds of cornmeal (with no loss), of which the miller keeps 11.111 pounds., leaving 100 for the farmer.
But this to easy, maybe it is only 42 pounds.
Ragknot, I think you might have something there with that 42, that would explain everything :)
Sorry, I mean the farmer must deliver 42 Kilograms of corn to get 100 pounds of cornmeal.
This post has been removed by the author.
how come everyone on this website links the answer to 42.
stop quoting out of hitch hikers guide. (im just angry someone managed to beat me to say the answer is 42)
Ragknot, I'm confused, was the 42 kilograms meant to be a serious answer or a joke?
My answer was meant to be a joke "everything".
don't be confused by comedy.
When you batted back the 42, I thought, I wonder how close 42 kg would be to 111. Not to close but closer than 42 pounds.
I considered using other units but 42 kg was the closest.
Wasn't Ford British, well not orginally, but at the beginning of the book?
Isn't it amazing how we can take a problem like 100/.9 and make in to an argument?
Statement:
100#/.9 = 42 kg (more or less)
Ragknot, it isn't an argument. You don't put in enough LOLs or :)s. It's hard to read dead-pan humour. Smilies help me out.
I don't remember it that well, the TV verion made Ford seem "typically British".
42 kg is good with me :) It will allow the miller a little leeway :)
I like "dead-pan" humor. My hopes are that some will take it serious, then I get to laugh at them.
What else can we glean from this question?
What about "Tennessee mountain community" in this question?
Isn't most of Tennessee a mountain community?
Is he saying people from Tennessee are "corny"? Or are mountain people "corny"?
Maybe corn from Tennessee makes more cornmeal per pound of corn.
Was a corny question?
Ragknot, you run a risk with dead-pan humour. People are likely to think your answers are meant to be genuine, and will assume you're an idiot and will say so. What's the point of baiting them? It isn't funny, it's confusing. Put the smilies in and they can laugh with you instead of at you.
... that's only a suggestion.
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