68 Arithmetic & Algebraic Problems
- THE SWARM OF BEES
Here is an example of the elegant way in which Bhaskara, in his great work,
Lilivati, in 1150, dressed his little puzzles:
The square root of half the number of bees in a swarm has flown out upon
a jessamine bush; eight-ninths of the whole swarm has remained behind; one
female bee flies about a male that is buzzing within the lotus flower into which
he was allured in the night by its sweet odor, but is now imprisoned in
it. Tell me the number of bees.
- BLINDNESS IN BATS
A naturalist, who was trying to pull the leg of Colonel Crackham, said that
he had been investigating the question of blindness in bats.
"I find," he said, "that their long habit of sleeping in dark corners during
the day, and only going abroad at night, has really led to a great prevalence of
blindness among them, though some had perfect sight and others could see out
of one eye. Two of my bats could see out of the right eye, just three of them
could see out of the left eye, four could not see out of the left eye, and
five could not see out of the right eye."
He wanted to know the smallest number of bats that he must have examined
in order to get these results.
- A MENAGERIE
A travelling menagerie contained two freaks of nature-a four-footed bird
and a six-legged calf. An attendant was asked how many birds and beasts
there were in the show, and he said:
"Well, there are 36 heads and 100 feet altogether. You can work it out for
yourself."
How many were there?- SHEEP STEALING
Some sheep stealers made a raid and carried off one-third of the flock of
sheep and one-third of a sheep. Another party stole one-fourth of what