Timeline for What are some counter-intuitive results in mathematics that involve only finite objects?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
13 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 6, 2016 at 11:41 | comment | added | DRF | @jwg if it did equal one it wouldn't work.:D The whole point is you have an 1/18th to spare. Which means you have almost 2 camels left over at the beginning. | |
| Dec 6, 2016 at 9:47 | comment | added | jwg | @JiK I agree. It seems like it would be much more counter-intuitive if it did equal 1. | |
| Dec 5, 2016 at 13:36 | comment | added | Jik | How is this an example of a counter-intuitive theorem? The fact that $1/2 + 1/3 + 1/9 \neq 1$ doesn't seem so strange to me. | |
| Dec 4, 2016 at 23:31 | comment | added | einpoklum | This is an overly complicated version of the story. You could just do it wtih 11 horses and the will of the father being "To my firstborn son I bequeath half of my herd; to my second son - a third; and to my youngest - the all that remains." | |
| Dec 4, 2016 at 15:53 | comment | added | Steve Jessop | @JanDvorak: I would say so, yes, since the goal is to find something that seems reasonable and that is "as close as possible" to following a set of instructions that cannot be followed precisely without access to a butcher. | |
| Dec 4, 2016 at 15:51 | comment | added | John Dvorak | So, it's a psychological puzzle rather than a math puzzle :-D | |
| Dec 4, 2016 at 15:49 | comment | added | Steve Jessop | @JanDvorak: psychologically it works because borrowing the camel makes it clear to the brothers that they are receiving the "extra" in exact proportion to their "rightful share". If you just told them "take 18/12/4" then you still have to demonstrate that you haven't unfairly given more extra to one than to the other, just to make round numbers. The number 36 likely will feature somewhere in this demonstration. You don't really need the physical camel to do that, of course, but it does make it easier, and the brothers aren't good with fractions. | |
| Dec 3, 2016 at 16:44 | comment | added | John Dvorak | @Kimball all of them would get an extra | |
| Dec 3, 2016 at 16:44 | comment | added | Kimball | @JanDvorak Well then they would fight over who got the extra, of course. | |
| Dec 3, 2016 at 8:18 | comment | added | John Dvorak | $1/2 + 1/3 + 1/9 = 17/18$. I have no idea why the brothers would not accept extras if there had been no camel lent, but if they did, they wouldn't have needed to borrow anything. | |
| Dec 3, 2016 at 5:47 | comment | added | polfosol | I have heard another version. The man had 17 camels and in his will he said the first son gets half, the second son gets one-third, and the last one gets one-ninth. They were fighting until a man arrived and said let me borrow you a camel! Then the sons took 9, 6 and 2 camels respectively, and left the man with his own camel :) | |
| Dec 2, 2016 at 22:30 | comment | added | Liam | I read 'the man who counted' a long time ago, and this segment has remained with me the whole time. | |
| Dec 2, 2016 at 21:54 | history | answered | Ataulfo | CC BY-SA 3.0 |