Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1910-07-14
FIGURE PROBLEMS
Gems That Are to Be Found In
the Old Arithmetics.
ALL OF THEM "PRACTICAL."
That Was What tho lnquisitivs Boys
Father Told Him, and the Lad Start
cd Out to Verify tho Statement-The
"Practicai" Examples He Dug Up.

Was education more practical gen.
Grafton ago. or did Johns father idy
his books more thoroughly than John
does? John is a seventh grade student
in the public schools. He asked his
father to help him solve the folio wing
problem:
IA. asked how much money he has
In the bank. replied. III | had SO
more would have $1,000 more than
half what | now have How much
money bad A.?'
such IA fool problem said the IA
Their. Tell that teacher to ask the
cashier You have been Fostering me
with problems like that for 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, l would bc thirty
years older than dad. and II dad were
0ne-fourth as old as he now Is he
would be my age? What would your
teacher do II 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 dock Of sheep into
three pastures. Half so into one pas
ture. one-third into another and thirty
two into third. How many in the
| Hocky"
That's queer" said John. "Prac-
teal exercises too. Here l. Il man who
wants to find how many sleep he has.
He counts them so he will know when
he has half Of them. This half he
puts into pasture. hen he counts
out third and puts II in another pen.
| Next he counts what's left and finds
he has thirty-two. After a little fgur-
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 1879 In miscellaneous examples he
found the following:
1.-Two ladders will together just reach
the top of a building seventy-fve feet
high. If the shorter ladder is two
thirds the length of the other. what is
the length of each?"
"Why didn't he measure each ladder
separately John asked himself. THAT
problem Is not practical. | guess dad
Is older than thought. l want an
older book
The text written in 1868 was handed
to him. The book was evidently infu-
enced by the civil war. for 1t was filed
with problems dealing with battering
down Notifications and the sustenance
of soldiers Que problem was:
"If twelve pieces Of cannon eight
cen Founders, can batter down for
tress In three hours, how long will it
take for nineteen twenty.four-pound-
ers to batter down the same fortress"
That's fine for II general" John re-
iected. but dad says that am going
to be u 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 fish is ten inches
long. Its 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 fish,
Very handy problem for butcher.
John turned to the Common School
Arithmetic. edition of 1858. 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 thir-
ty-six rods minute, and the hound
runs at the rate of forty rods a 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 i'm.
practical for present day purposes
John concluded. The problem was as
follows:
III l give eighty bushels of potatoes
at p cents q bushel and 24O pounds OF
, fax at IS cents a pound for sixty -four
bushels of salt. what is the salt worth
, bushel?"
Another problem was:
"A good man driving his guest t.
market was met by another. who said
| Good morrow. master. with your lO(
geese Says he in reply. I have MOI
, 100 geese. but If had half as many
as I now have and two and one-hal1
geese besides the number | now hav,
: already l should have 100 How