FOOLED BY MATHEMATICS

READING COMPREHENSION

FOOLED BY MATHEMATICS - HOW??

        

MATHEMATICS is a branch of knowledge that deals with numbers. Some people think it is a complicated subject to learn and claims that this kind of knowledge is discouraging to girls. in brief it is the knowledge for boys and men. No! I don't like to argue about it if you think I am offended by such remarks for the fact that I am a girl. On the other hand you might agree to the opinion to some extent and I don't mind if you do so. I'd rather talk about mathematics in a fascinating way.

No matter how bitterly you hate this subject at school, you cannot avoid living with it. Counting, measuring, adding, and subtracting, dividing and multiplying are the kinds we live with. Even we often play the puzzling games using mathematics.

Now come and join me to have a little play with counting and measuring. Numbers will be our partners. The topic is that we play mathematics. It's different from mathematics plays us, isn't it? So, don't you be fooled!

We are well acquainted with the story of an old man who lives with his three sons. His wife has died and he's dying. Besides the land and the house he has been living in as long as his age, he owns 17 horses to divide among his three sons. He has decided that his oldest son will have a half part of the property. The second will have one third, whereas the third will only have one ninth.

After the father has died, the sons do not know how to divide the horses. Seventeen can't be divided into two or three, or nine, but they want to follow their late father's instruction. So, they come to a wise man asking for solution.

The wise man adds one horse, his own horse, to those 17 ones and easily divides them among the beneficiaries because there are now 18 horses altogether. Half of the number is 9, so the first son gets 9 horses. Counting accordingly, the second gets 6 and the youngest gets 2, surprisingly, if we plus 9 and 6, and 2, they add up to 17, not 18. the wise man doesn't lose his horses. How come? Do you know? The following question is, why did the old man do some mathematical tricks on his sons? Didn't they know his sons flunk mathematics at school?4

(P.R 1987)

4) Let's look deeper into the calculation. The proportion is 1/2, 1/3, 1/9. When we are to multiply 17 by those fraction, we fail to get integers. The horses mustn't be slaughtered, must they? Now, we count the fractions: 1/2 + 1/3 + 1/9 = 9/18 + 6/18 + 2/18 = 17/18. It answers the question why the wise man still have his horse. The denominator comes to 18. Hence, the horses that will be divided must be 18; 1/2 x 18 = 9, 1/3 x 18 = 6, 1/9 x 18 = 2. The wise man needn't be afraid of losing his horse for the numerator is 17.