The San Francisco call., 1910-07-05
"PRACTICAL" QUERIES
THAT PUZZLED FATHER
Small Boy Finds Queer Arith-
metic Problems

Was education more practical gen
GRAFTON ago, or did Johns father study
his books more thoroughly than John
does? asks the New York Herald. John
is a seventh grade student I'm the public
schools. 5e asked his father yesterday
to help him solve the following prob
lem:
A, when asked how much money he
had in the bank. replied: IF 1 had $40
more I would have $1,000 more than
half what ] now have" How much
money had A?
Such a fool problem" said the
father Tell that teacher TO ASK the
cashier. You have been pestering me
with problems like that for a week.
Suppose your teacher asked you how
old you are. Would you tell her:
"'If I were 10 times as old as / am,
diminished by AZ, 1 would be so years
older than dad. and If dad were one
fourth as old as he now is he would be
my age'?"
What would your teacher do if you
answered in such a manner? In my
day We had practical problems in our
arithmetic"
In order to investigate his fathers
statement John went to the public IL
brary and asked for an old arithmetic.
The librarian gave him Richards
Natural Arithmetic" He turned to the
page marked Practical Exercises and
read:
A puts his whole flock of sheep into
three pastures; half go into one pas
ture, one-third into another and 80 into
a third. How many in the flock?
That's queer" said John. practical
exercises, too. Here is a man; who
wants to find how many sheep he has
He counts them so he will know when
he has half of them. This half he puts
into pasture. Then he counts out
third and puts it in another pen. Next
he counts what's left and finds he has
So After little figuring he finds how
many in the whole flock. Very prac
tical. l guess dad didn't study that
book.
The next book he examined was
Mines Inductive Arithmetic edition
OF 1879. In miscellaneous examples he
found the following:
Two ladders will together just reach
the top of a building 70 feet high. If
the shorter ladder is two-thirds the
length of the other, what is the length
of each?
why didn't he mea sure each ladder
separately?" John asked himself. That
problem is not practical. 1 guess dad
is older than 1 thought. I want an
older book
The textbook written in 1865 was
handed to him. The book was evidently
Influenced by the civil war, for 1t was
filed with problems dealing with bat
tering down fortifications and the sus-
tenance of soldiers. One problem was:
IF IL pieces Of cannon, Is Founders,
can batter down a fortress in three
hours, how long viii it take for 10
"a Founders to batter down the same
fortress2"
That's fine for a general" John re-
hected, but dad says that I am going
TO be a captain OF industry"
Another arithmetic of the same date
had the famous fish problem, with
which Johns teacher had troubled him
for six weeks before he himself finally
explained it TO the class. The fish
problem is:
The head of a fish is 10 inches long.
It's tail is as long as it's head and one
half the body. The body is as long as
the head and tail both. How long is
the hsh?"
Very handy problem for a butcher.
Dad was born before the civil war"
John reflected as he turned to the
Common School Arithmetic edition of
1853. Here I'm sure to find something
good" He read:
"A hare starts up u yards before a
hound. but it is not perceived by him
till she has been up 4 minutes. She
runs at the rate of 36 rods a minute and
the hound runs at the rate of 40 rods
a minute. How long will the race last
and what will be the distance the hound
runs2"
What difference does il make how
far the hound runs?" John asked as he
turned to "Fhe Scholars Arithmetic"
edition Of 1907. The present high cost
of living made the first problem inn
practical for present day purposes, John
concluded. The problem was as fol-
lows:
IF I give so bushels of potatoes al
Il cents bushel and 240 pounds OF fax
at 8 cents a pound for 81 bushels of
salt, what is the salt worth a bushel?"