A very simple problem.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 58, 9 March 1935, Page 3 (Supplement)

A very simple problem.

(By Mary Hay, 10S, Graf ton Road, Auckland, CI.) "Father!" "Yes. my dear." "I wonder if you would mind working out this problem for Alison? I've tried to do it, but it doesn't seem to come right." Certain grunts came from behind a wall of newspaper, and then a head appeared at one side. "Why, certainly, my dear, just bring it over here." Mother brought a well-worn exercise book and a pencil, while father laid down his paper and cleaned a place on the library table. Alison followed her mother with the great confidence that her father had all the brains that were required . Father read the problem. "If a tiger can eat a bullock in four hours and a bear can eat the same bullock in six hours, and a lion can eat the bullock in eight hours, and a wolf can eat the bullock in eleven hours, how long will it take the wolf to eat tho bullock after the lion has been eating for two hours, the bear for an hour and twenty minutes, and the tiger for three quarters of an hour?" "Well, here goes," said father, Tolling up his sleeves and picking up th« penciL "What a ridiculous sum, anyway. How could a tiger eat a bullock in four hours. Such nonsense to give children such problems. Don't you see how ridiculous, the whole thing is V "It does seem so," said mother, "but after all it is only a mathematical problem.', "Of course it is only a problem," said father, sharpening the pencil and blowing the lead off his lingers, "but when I was young we with sense in them, wuch as how many square feet in a certain box, or how many cubic feet in a pile of timber. We never had sums to do with wild animals." "I tried first to find out how big the bullock was, to get an idea how much a tiger could eat in two hours, but I don't think I am very good at arithmetic." "That has nothing to do with it, whatever, my dear," said father grandly. "I know that much." t "Well, now we'll eet to work," he said getting warmed up to the business on hand. "First, we'll put down sixty and multiply it by four." "Why do you do that, father?" asked Alison; "it doesn't say anything about sixty in the book." "My dear, children should be seen and not heard. I know what I am doing. First we have to reduce the whole thing to minutes before we get to the real basis oi the question. Kow, please, Alice, will you remain quiet?" "Now sixty by four gives us two hundred and forty, and the two hours equal one hundred and twenty minutes." "Teacher didn't work it like that, father," Alison interrupted. "She worked it in her head and she didn't say anything about minutes." "Well, my dear, seeing you know such a lot about it, don't you think you had better leave it to me? There are always two ways of doing a thing, and it-doesn't make any difference the way your teacher did it. Teachers are very wise, but they don't know everything." And father continued majestically: "The bear can eat the bullock in six hours, which is three hundred and sixty minutes, the tiger having eaten one-half of the bullock, there is a half left for the "bear. Now the bear eats for an hour and twenty minutes, which is one hundred and eighty minutes. So we put down one hundred and eighty-eightieths. Then comes the tiger." "Why, one hundred and eightyeightieths?" inquired mother; "how does that help?" "You'll see when I've finished. Now then—where were we? Oh, yes—the tiger." And father went on mumbling to himself. "Now keep quiet, and if I don't get this out I'll buy you both new hats. Let me see." "Our leacher never used minutes at all," eaid Alison again; "she said it was only mental arithmetic, and you ought to do it in your head." "If I'm doing this sum," said father, with much warmth, "I'll do it my way, do you see? And if you don't want it done my way, do it yourself, and I'll go back to my paper. I'm not doing this for fun. I have had a hard day's work, and I want to have a little rest. I worked these sums before even your teacher was thought of. and I'll work them long after she is dead. I'll do it my own way. The trouble is. you talk too much, both of you. Now where is that piece of paper with the boar's eating time on it? Alison, have vou got it?" " . "I don't think you worked it out, father,' , said mother, meekly. "Of course I did," said father hotly; "where i& it? Where did I put it?" "Anyway, daddy, I didn't see it. It wasn't like teacher did it. Teacher —" "Mother, if you'll send that child to lted perhaps we'll get some light on thematter of this boar business," he suggested. "I can't work problems with a din buzzing in my ears. Alison, go to bed. and in the morning I'll have this problem worked out for you and explain it all before ypu go to school. It's time for you to be in bed—it's nine o'clock."

Alison was rushed off to. bed. still exclaiming that "Teacher didn't do it that Avar."

More figures wove jotted down, and more still, and the hands of the clock travelled slowly round to ten. "Father, dear, why. don't you leave the sum alone? It doesn't matter very much. Let us go to bed; you must be very tired." Hut father was resolute. "I won't leave this until I've finished it. It's so simple, if only I conld find those bear figures. All you have to do is to find out how long each animal takes until you .come to the wolf, and then you dividP by eleven. Rut you go to bed. dear. I'll come soon." Twelve o'cock came, and father sat down on the bedroom chair and wearily took off his boots. "Did you work it out, father?" mother asked timidly. "After all the noise stopped it was as easy as clockwork. How could a !>r>ar and a wolf eat the bullock when a lion and tiger were standing round?"