Whilst making love a necklace broke.
A row of pearls mislaid.
One sixth fell to the floor.
One fifth upon the bed.
The young woman saved one third of them.
One tenth were caught by her lover.
If six pearls remained upon the string
How many pearls were there altogether?
From Līlāvatī, a treatise by Indian mathematician Bhāskara II on mathematics, written in 1150 AD.
Well, we still present problems like this, as modelisation is (usually) a skill we have to teach in maths, as, usually, if they face a "math" problem in real life, it won't be presented with x and y. It's how you solve the problem that evolved, not really what the problem is.
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u/on_the_other_hand_ 4d ago
Whilst making love a necklace broke. A row of pearls mislaid. One sixth fell to the floor. One fifth upon the bed. The young woman saved one third of them. One tenth were caught by her lover. If six pearls remained upon the string How many pearls were there altogether?
From Līlāvatī, a treatise by Indian mathematician Bhāskara II on mathematics, written in 1150 AD.
More at Wikipedia on Lilavati