17 (camels)
A father dies leaving instructions that his 17 camels are to be split up between his 3 sons as follows:
Half the camels are to go to the eldest son
a third of the camels are to go to the middle son
and a ninth of the camels are to go to the youngest son
Failing to think of a way of carrying out split, they sought help from their wise but poor uncle. Their uncle arrived on his tatty old camel. He said, "I'll lend you my camel, then you'll have 18, and you should be able to divide them up without difficulty." So the eldest son chose his 9 camels, the middle son chose his 6, and the youngest chose his 2 camels. The uncle then got back on his camel (which no-one wanted) and went home.
DUH!! and DUH!! ... or is it? ^^
Half the camels are to go to the eldest son
a third of the camels are to go to the middle son
and a ninth of the camels are to go to the youngest son
Failing to think of a way of carrying out split, they sought help from their wise but poor uncle. Their uncle arrived on his tatty old camel. He said, "I'll lend you my camel, then you'll have 18, and you should be able to divide them up without difficulty." So the eldest son chose his 9 camels, the middle son chose his 6, and the youngest chose his 2 camels. The uncle then got back on his camel (which no-one wanted) and went home.
DUH!! and DUH!! ... or is it? ^^
Labels: mathemagic, thinktank
posted by Chris at
8:02 AM
14 Comments:
1/2 + 1/3 + 1/9 =
9/18 + 6/18 + 2/18 =
17/18. It's not 100%. It's only 94.4444% of the camels.
The father, who was suffering from severe cognitive degradation, didn't have his will proofed, so didn't account for all 100% of the camels.
The oldest son actually got 9/17th's of the camels (52.94117%).
The middle son got 6/17th's (35.29411%)
The youngest sone got 2/17ths (11.7547%)
All total 17/17ths or 100% of the camels distributed.
Hi EB. You doneded it :) Thanks.
Perhaps the intestate eighteenth of the camels, was meant to go to the (not so wise after all) uncle.
1/2 + 1/3 + 1/9 =
9/18 + 6/18 + 2/18 = 17/18
I think the father planned it this way with their uncle, and he hoped that one of his kids would upgrade his brother's camel. But it looks like they didn't.
Maybe the uncle had helped himself ahead of time.
But the only reason the uncle got his camel back is because no one wanted it. and if you were to do a but of rounding you would find that the numbers work out.
1/2 of 17 = 8.5
1/3 of 17 = 5.6
1/9 of 17 = 1.9
therefore a little rounding gives the numbers each received.
Hi Thrym. A good lawyer should have been summoned. Between them, the sons have stolen 17/18ths of a camel.
I am failing to see how they stole anything. There were only 17 camels in the will. The uncle loaned one so that they could be divided easier, but no one wanted the uncles camel. The camels were divided and the uncle got his camel back. 9+6+2=17 The 18th was effectively a place holder.
The first son should have got 8.5 camels, the second 5.666... camels and the third 1.888... camels. We don't know what the will had to say about the remaining 0.9444... camels, but it wasn't willed to the sons.
In fairnes to their dear old late dad, if the herd had been 18 camels when he wrote his will, then the sons would have got 9, 6 and 2 camels, and there would be 1 left over.
OK while technically correct that .9444 camels werent specifically mentioned in the will I respectfully point out that few would want a partial camel unless it tasted like steak.
On re-reading the problem, it doesn't specifically say that the last 1/18 th of the herd hasn't been specified. We've only seen an extract. The last 1/18th may have been for his wife. She will definitely have been robbed of a 1 legged camel :)
The camel given by the POOR uncle was a loaner. Like the CAPS says he was poor, therefore making it illogical to simply give his camel away. And another important keyword is the loan of the camel. ((Maybe his kids were the ones suffering cognitive impairments))
Hi Anonymous. I'm not quite sure what your point is! That the uncle is poor is only used to acount for the fact that no-one chose his tatty old camel. The posed problem is a "trick" question.
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