Blog Post #6 – Egyptian Word Problem

A man who had 12 horses and 3 children wrote in his will to leave 1/2 of his horses to Pat, 1/3 to Chris, and 1/12 to Sam. However, just after he died, one of his horses died too. How will the children divide the 11 remaining horses in order to follow the instructions of the will?

1/2 is equivalent to 6/12


1/3 is equivalent to 4/12


1/12 is equivalent to 1/12

The total of these is 11/12, therefore all of the horses have not been allocated to the children. Furthermore, despite one horse dying there is no need to change how the children divide the horses.

Fractions have many uses and benefits; in ancient times they were helpful in trading goods. Before there was currency that could be used to buy things, people had to trade 2 loaves of bread for a jug of milk for example. There is an inherent opportunity cost here that can be calculated using fractions, which is the basis for how economists calculate comparative advantages in trade between two countries in today’s world. Fractions are also very prevalent in the finance world. Traders at investment banks quote the price of fixed income securities using fractions. If a trader wants to buy a certain bond, they may offer a price of 98 and 3/4 for example for a bond currently trading at 100.