Saturday, June 23, 2007

Can't Learn Math later in Life

One should learn mathematics early in life. One Rama Krishna Deva learn't it later through Bhaskara's Lilavati, actually by writing a commentary about it. The result is the following problem. Check comments for answer.

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?

5 comments:

Sarvesh said...

The answer is 30 pearls because where x represents the original number of pearls on the necklace:

6+(x/6)+(x/5)+(x/3)+(x/10)=x
(6/x)+(1/6)+(1/5)+(1/3)+(1/10)=1
(36/x)+1+(6/5)+2+(3/5)=6
(36/x)+3+(9/5)=6
(180/x)+24=30
(180/x)=6
x=30

The problem is from Manoranjana of Ramakrishna Deva, which is a commentary on Lilavati, from stanza 54, chapter 3.

Anonymous said...

The bigger and more interesting question on the table is: How exactly did the necklace break ? Given that at this stage in life we are too late to learn math, this question has a higher significance.

Anonymous said...

Aldi, the great Goan Portuguese Room Mate, The strig of the pearls became too hot to handle the situration, and broke down in to individual pieces with an exclamation! that said, count me on. Perhaps you would count 63 at this age, including the sweat drops and pearls of your wisdom:-))

Anonymous said...

Great work.

Unknown said...

Nice Post...

Astrologers in Adyar Chennai