The Athena press. [volume] (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942, 1910-07-01
FIGURE PROBLEMS
Gems That Are to Be Found In
the Old Arithmetics.
ALL OF THEM "PRAcTIcAL." "

Father Told Him, and the Lad Start
ed Out to Verify the Statement-The
"Practica" Examples He Dug Up.
Was education more practical gen.
Grafton ago,so did Johns father study
his books more thoroughly than John
does? John is a seventh grade student
10 the public schools. He asked his
father to help him solve the following
problem:
"a, asked how much money he has
in the bank, replied, If ! had $40
more I would have $1,000 more than
half what | now have How much
money had APP
"Such fool problem said the fa-
ther. "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 |
were ten times as old as | am, dimin-
ished by forty-two, would be thirty
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 60 into one pas
ture, one-thlrd into another and thirty
two into a third. How many In the
fiock?"
"That's queer" said John. "Prac.
tical 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 a pasture. Then he counts
out third and puts it in another pen.
Next he counts what's left and finds
he has thirty-two After little figur-
ing he finds how many in the whole
flock. Very practical. | guess dad
didn't study that book"
The next book he examined was
Mines Inductive Arithmetic, edition
of 1870. In miscellaneous examples he
found the following:
"Two ladders will together just reach
the top Of building seventy-6ve feet
high. If the shorter ladder Is two
thirds the length Of the other, what Is
the length ,of each?" a .
"Why didn't he measure each ladder
separately% John asked himself. THAT
problem Is not practical. guess dad
is older than thought. / want an
older book"
The text written In 1868 was handed
to him. The book was evidently in6u'
enced by the civil war, for 1t was filed
with problems dealing with battering
down Notifications and the sustenance
of soldiers. One problem was:
"If twelve pieces Of cannon eight
cen pounders) can batter down a for
tress in three hours, how long will 1t
take for nineteen twenty-four-pound-
ers to batter down the same fortress"
"That's fine for q general" John re-
fected, "but dad says that ! am going
to be 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 II to the class. The fish
problem is:
"The head of fish is ten inches
long. Its tail is as long as It's head and
one-half the body. The body IL as long
as the head and tail both. How long is
the fishW
Very handy problem for butcher.
John turned to the Common School
Arithmetic, edition Of 1853. Here
I'm sure to find something good" he
reflected and read:
"a hare starts up twelve rods before a
hound, but she is not perceived by him
till she has been up one and one-fourth
minutes. She runs at the rate OF thlr-
ty-six rods a minute. and the hound
runs at the rate Of forty rods min
ute. How long will the race last, and
what will be the distance the hound
runs?"
''What difference does 1t make how
far the hound runs" John asked as he
turned to the 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
follows:
"If give eighty bushels Of potatoes
at 81 cents a bushel and 240 pounds of
flax at 10 cents pound for slxty-four
bushels of salt, what is the salt worth
a bushel?"
Another problem was:
"a good man driving his guest to
market was met by another, who said.
Good morrow, master, with your 100
geese Says he in reply, I have not
100 geese, but If had half as many
as / now have and two and one-half
geese besides the number now have
already should have 100,' How
many geese had the man~
How long would you permit a man
to live ifNhe made such an answer to
you?