Guest Posted April 5, 2010 Report Share Posted April 5, 2010 A father on his death bed gave his three sons 17 silver coins. However he had some conditions: 1. The first son will get half of the coins 2. The second son will get one third of the coins 3. Third son will get one ninth of the coins Knowing that 17 cannot be divided by 2, 6 or 9, three sons needs your help before the father dies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 superprismatic Posted April 5, 2010 Report Share Posted April 5, 2010 One of the sons should say, "Here, I'll donate a coin to the stash. If there are any coins left over after we divvy them up, I'll take my donated coin back." Then there will be 18 coins. The first son gets 9, the second son gets 6, and the third son gets 2. That adds up to 17, so, there's one left which the donor son then gets back! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Guest Posted April 5, 2010 Report Share Posted April 5, 2010 For the time being add a coin. That makes it 18. Half of 18 is 9. One third is 6. One ninth is 2. 9+6+2 is equal to 17..... I hope the father is alive.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Guest Posted April 5, 2010 Report Share Posted April 5, 2010 adding a coin makes eighteen, which is divisible by all those numbers so 9+6+2=17... and take out the leftover coin again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Guest Posted April 5, 2010 Report Share Posted April 5, 2010 yep all are correct. This puzzle is really old. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Guest Posted April 6, 2010 Report Share Posted April 6, 2010 the three brothers got the idea. However unfortunately none of them had a spare silver coin. It was too late, so the father died taking the 17 coins away with him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Guest Posted April 8, 2010 Report Share Posted April 8, 2010 (edited) Isn't that cheating? It seems like the father meant for 1/18 of his money to be set aside for something else. 1 - 1/2 - 1/3 - 1/9 = (1/18)*(18-9-6-2) = 1/18 of sum (less than one coin) The sons are just helping themselves to this bit of money. There is 17/18 of a coin left, Son 1 steals 1/2 of a coin, leaving 8/18 left Son 2 steals 1/3 of a coin, leaving 2/18 left Son 3 steals 1/9 of a coin, leaving nothing left If I hadn't been told this was the answer, I would have assumed that this scheme is invalid. Edited April 8, 2010 by mmiguel1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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A father on his death bed gave his three sons 17 silver coins. However he had some conditions:
1. The first son will get half of the coins
2. The second son will get one third of the coins
3. Third son will get one ninth of the coins
Knowing that 17 cannot be divided by 2, 6 or 9, three sons needs your help before the father dies.
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