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  • Suresh Manickam
    Suresh Manickam

    MemberDec 26, 2011

    Toughest Puzzel Ever

    A man was dividing his property among his children. This was what
    the man told to his first son “Take as many number of cattle as you
    can care for and your wife may take one-ninth of the remaining
    number.” To his second son he said “Take one more than what the first
    son took and your wife will have one ninth of the cattle remaining after
    you have taken.” This applied to the remaining sons too i.e. each son
    would take one more than the next oldest brother and their wives
    would have one ninth of the remaining after their husbands have got
    their share.
    After the cattle were divided, the man proceeded to divide the gold
    bars he had among the children. Each gold bar was valued at 3.5 times
    each cow's value. The gold bars were divided such that each couple had
    equally valued inheritance. What are the number of cows, gold bars
    and the number of sons the man had?
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Replies
  • harshajd

    MemberJan 6, 2012

    "After the cattle were divided, the man proceeded to divide the gold
    bars he had among the children. Each gold bar was valued at 3.5 times
    each cow's value. The gold bars were divided such that each couple had
    equally valued inheritance"
    I will not worry about the number of Gold bars as, if each couple should get equal valued inheritance then I assume that the number of cattles are also shared equally.
    The no of cattles given to wives will be in multiples of 9 (as it's 1/9th part of remaining, and result should be a whole number)

    With trial and error we get,

    the number of cows = 64
    and No of sons = 8
    elder son takes 1 cow n his wife 7 (63/9) - leaves 56 cows
    second one takes one more than his elder, so 2 n his wife 6 (54/9) - leaves 48 cows
    third son takes 3 cows, n his wife 5(45/9) - leaves 40 cows
    ..
    ..
    Seventh son takes 7 cows and his wife 1(9/9) - leaves 8 cown
    Last (i.e eight) son takes 8 cows and his wife none
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  • zaveri

    MemberMay 18, 2012

    but this is an age-old question
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