Enhance your problem solving skills

Mathematics Enhances our Problem Solving Skills.

Topic Covered :   Fractions

STORY

17 Camels and 3 Sons

Long ago, there lived an old man in a small village, located in the vicinity of a desert. The old man had three sons and 17 camels.  He used to rent out camels as a means of shipping in the desert. Unfortunately the old man passed away. The three sons opened the Will which was left by their father for them.

The three sons read the will. As per the Will, the property was equally divided among the three. But what about the 17 camels. 

How can they be divided equally ? Each son thought.

 They started to read further.

The old man had stated that the eldest son will own half of the 17 camels, the middle one will get one third of the 17 camels, and the youngest one will get one ninth of the camels. 

All of them were surprised to read the will . It  was not possible to divide 17 camels as mentioned in the Will.

They spent several days thinking of several ways to divide the camels ,but none could find the answer.

They finally took the issue to the wise man in their village. The wise man heard the problem and went with them to their house riding his own camel.

The wise man added his camel and made the total number of camels 18.

Now as per the will

The eldest son's share was half the camels, it was calculated as  1/2 of 18  = 9 camels!

The middle son's share was One third of the camels, it was calculated as 1/3 of 18 = 6 camels!

The youngest son's share was One ninth of the camels,it was calculated as 1/9 of 18 = 2 camels!

Totally there were 9 + 6 + 2 camels shared by the brothers, which counted to 17 camels.

Now, the one camel added by the wise man was taken back. He came back to his home leaving all brothers happy and satisfied.

The wise man solved this problem smartly with his intelligence. With the presence of mind and logical thinking . 

That's why I believe that every problem has a solution.

How did it happen?

 1/2 + 1/3 + 1/9 = 17/18 i.e. Actually 17 camels were not divided into three sons but 18 camels were divided among 4 persons and fourth one got 1/18 of 18.