Achmed and Ali are camel-drivers and on one day they decided to quit their job. They wanted to become shepherds. So they went to the market and sold all their camels. The amount of money(dinars) they received for each camel is the same as the total of camels they owned. For that money they bought as many sheep as possible at 10 dinars a sheep. For the money that was left they bought a goat.
On their way home they got in a fight and decided to split up. When they divided the sheep there was one sheep left. So Ali said to Achmed "I take the last sheep and you can get the goat". "That's not fair" said Achmed, "a goat costs lesser than a sheep". "Ok", Ali said "then I will give you one of my dogs and then we are even". And Achmed agreed.
How much does a dog cost?
Interesting story. Is there a question? heh.
ReplyDeleteOops! Thanks Andy, I fixed it. I was wondering how much a dog costs.
ReplyDeleteAgain, sorry about the mixup. Here's what I have for an answer:
ReplyDelete1 sheep - 1 dog = 1 goat + 1 dog
1 sheep - 1 goat = 2 dogs
A sheep is 10 dinars, but what costs a goat?
The money they received for their camels is a square. And the decade of this square is odd (total money / 10 dinars), because they could not divide the sheep equally.
Now the interesting thing is that all squares with an odd decade ends on a 6. (162 = 256, 242 = 576). So a goat costs always 6 dinars.
10 - 6 = 2 dogs
So a dog costs 2 dinars.
Mike, why is the money they recieved for the camels a square? could they not have recieved 52 dinars?
ReplyDeleteThe way I read the sentence: "The amount of money(dinars) they received for each camel is the same as the total of camels they owned" indicates a square.
ReplyDeleteI'm getting the feeling this was an unclear and unfair question.... sigh.
Mike, why 2 dogs in your answer while only 1 dog in the question was handed over? I did the puzzle but came to 10 - 6 = 4 dinars for 1 dog.
ReplyDeleteThe sheep couldn't be divided by 2, so must be an odd number.
ReplyDelete