THE MEN AND EGG PROBLEM. A Very Easy 'Sum' in Common Arithmetic Baffles Many Calculators.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 282, 18 July 1888, Page 6

THE MEN AND EGG PROBLEM. A Very Easy 'Sum' in Common Arithmetic Baffles Many Calculators.

This grcab problem which has been occupying the Boston mind recently, even to the exclusion of the Fisheries Treaty, is the following : ' If a hen and a half lay an egg and a hall in a day and a half, how many eggs will six hens lay in seven days ?' Thequestion seems tohavebeen floated by the Boston "Herald." It set calculators to work all over the country. Elaborate, philosophical, mathematical, commercial and comical solutions come in from all points. A Harvard professor gives detailed' solutions by the unitary and the ratio j methods. An Amhorst professor sends in his answer in terms more algebraical than, those of his Harvard contemporary. The lore of a professor in the Institute of Technology is also called into roqui sition, and his solution is given in terms of the unitary method. A solution by a professor of Tufts College, Medford, goes through the problem with comprehensive brevity, taking a shorter cut to the conclusion than that of any other of the savants who grappled with it. Two of the New York journals differ in their conclusions from the Boston men of the quill, and also from the answers given, as above mentioned, from profe&feorial chairs. A correspondent of the Boston ' Herald ' writes : 'Your egg problem is n, simple affair. My solution of ib (which I -will wager $1 to a cent is correct) is this : Eliminate all the fractions and deal only with whole numbers. Fractions tend only to confuse and perplex. Wo need havo nothing' whatever to do with them in this case. If it requires a day and a half for a hen and a half to lay an egg and a half, of course one hen will lay one egg in one day and six hens will lay six eggs in ono clay. If six hens will lay six eggs, in seven days they will lay seven times six eggs, or forty-two eggs. For the life of me I can't see anything difficult or complex about Ihiji problem. It's as easy as 'falling off a log.' ' A Troy man solves it thus : 'To simplify the matter, I will call the I hens pullets, and the \ eggs pullet's eggs, so the hen lays her egg in Vt days, and the half hen or pullet lays her lifctlc half egg in the sanio time. If 1 lion lays I egg In 1| days, in 7 days 6 hens would layj^eggs and 3 of an egg over ; now, as far asTlTnow, hens are never known to lay f, of an ecg, so it follows that the six hens having laid 24 eggs at the end of the sixth day "must patiently wait 36 hours after the sixth day before laying again.' A Chicago mathematician says : •It appears to me that those sending answers have not sufficiently studied the action of a hen laying an egg. My solution is as ! follows :-- -Ono hen take 3 a day and a half to lay one egg ; therefore, at the end of six days one hen will lay exactly four oggs. Now, as a hen does not lay factions oi"a.n ogg, no more eggs will be laid until tho morning of the eight day. Consequently, the number of eggs laid in .seven days is the same as in six days, which makes the answer 24.' A Connecticut man disposes of -the problem, thus : ' The egg problem was the cause of some discussion hero, and after it was stated that 24 was the correco answer, 1 decided to give the matter a practical test. I .selected six of my best pullets, and put them on trial Sunday morning at 6 o'clock, with instructions that each one should produce an egg every 36 hours for the following; seven days, but I insisted that they should commence at once. Sunday evening I brought in six eggs. a\>o same number on Tuesday merning Wednesday evening, Friday morning, ami Saturday evening, making 30 in all. The only difference between my hens and yours is this : Mine work first and then rest, while yours reverse this rule, and inasmuch a3 I get the most eggs, 1, of course, claim the best solution. The cla c s that produce only 28 do simply average work.' The solution made light recreation for the 'Gazette' reporter during the short period of about 30 seconds.