CAN YOU SOLVE THIS?
How much greater than three* fourths is. four-fourths? At first eight it seems an easy question, but put it to your arithmetical friends, and you will probably find that it will divide them into two parfciee, one contending that the answer is onsfourth, and the other as positively affirming that it is one-third, while both will be ready^to prove the accuracy of their resneotive solutions. The " party of the firsb part " (tin. use a legal phrase) ' may argue theiij point in this way:— Five shillings is the fourth part of ai pound. If you have fifteen shillings, or three-fourths of a pound, and somebody gives you another, fourth part, yqu have a sovereign; ergo, your fourfourths is one-fourth greater than three-fourth* But this will not suit the other partj at all, and they will proceed scornfully to • fioint out that -the argument is all wrong, since if you have fifteen ebijling*, and somebody is generous enough to\ add five shillings to it, the donor ii only giving you one-third of th« amount you already possess (5 x 3 plus 15) j ( therefore, your sovereingn in only one-third more than your fifteen shillings. It is a pretty problem, and accountants have been known to> wrangle over it for houi*.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TS19060818.2.32
Bibliographic details
Star (Christchurch), Issue 8704, 18 August 1906, Page 3
Word Count
212CAN YOU SOLVE THIS? Star (Christchurch), Issue 8704, 18 August 1906, Page 3
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