Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1910-07-22
FIGURE PROBLEMS
Gems That Are to Be Found In
the Old Arithmetics.
ALL OF THEM "PRACTICAL."


ed Out to Verify the Statement-The
"Praoticap Examples He Dug Up.
Was education more practical q gen.
Grafton ago. or did Johns father study
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 following
problem:
"A, asked how much money he has
In the bank. replied. If | had $40
more would have $1,000 more than
half what now have How much
money had Az?
such a fool problem" said the IA
Their. Tell that teacher to ask the
cashier. You have been Fostering 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 ageY What would your
teacher do If you answered in such
manner? In my day we had practical
problems in our arithmetic"
In order to investigate his fathers
statement John went to the public H.
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 thirty
two into a third. How many in the
hock?"
THAT'S queer" said John. "Prac-
teal exercises too. Here is 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 a third and puts it in another pen.
Next be counts what's left and finds
he has thirty-two. After a 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 1879. In miscellaneous examples he
found the following:
Two ladders will together just reach
the top of building seventy-five 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. 1 guess dad
is older than l thought. l want an
older book"
The text written in 1868 was handed
to him. The book was evidently inf1u-
enced by the civil war. for it 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 II
take for nineteen twentyfour-pound
ers to batter down the same fortress?'
That's fine for general" John re-
1ected. "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 it to the class. The t1sh
problem is:
THE head of fish is ten inches
long. Its tail is as long as its head and
one-half the body. The body is as long
MS the head and tail both. How long is
the fishT'
Very handy problem for butcher
John turned to the Common Schoo
Arithmetic. edition of 1858 Here
I'm sure to find something good" he
reflected and read
"A hare starts up twelve rods before 6
hound. but she is not perceived by hin
till she has been up one and one-fourtt
minutes. She runs at the rate Of thir
ty-six rods a minute. and the hound
runs at the rate of forty rods min
ute. How long will the race last, ant
what will be the distance the hounG
runs?"
What difference does it make how
far the hound runS?" John asked as ht
turned to the Scholars Arithmetic
edition of 1907. The present high cos
Of living made the first problem i'm
practical for present day purposes
John concluded. The problem was al
follows:
IF l give eighty bushels of potatoes
Mt 81 cents bushel and 24O pounds o.
r fax at 10 cents a pound for siXty-foul
bushels of salt. what is the salt WORT
t a bushel"
, Another problem was:
r "A good man driving his guest t
market was met by another, who said
. Good morrow. master. with your ion
geese Says he in reply, L have no
: 100 geese but if had half as man!
as l now have and two and one-hal
geese besides the number l now hav,
already l should have 1OO.' How
many geese had the man"