[Guest]

Francisco de Goya, a famous Spanish painter, after painting a beautiful portrait for the Queen of England was returning to Spain. The queen had rewarded him with 3 pounds of gold, 6 pounds of silver, 15 pounds of wheat and 10 pounds of rice. The Captain of the ship saw this as an opportunity to earn a little extra money and asked him to pay 2 pesos (currency at that time) per pound. All his belongings were measured. How many pesos did he have to pay?

[Guest]

Is he to pay per pound avoirdupois or Troy or a combination thereof?

If per pound avoirdupois then the precious metals weigh in at 108 Troy ounces (12 Troy ounces per Troy pound) (9 x 12). 108 Troy ounces weighs approximately 118.5 avoirdupois ounces, or 7.4 avoirdupois pounds ( 1 Troy ounce = 1.097142857 ounce Avoirdupois). Since the wheat and rice are measured avoirdupois, the total weight is 15 + 10 + 7.4 = 32.4.

If we assume rounding down the price is 64 pesos, rounding up the result is 66 pesos.

My dad used to always ask " which weighs more, a pound of feathers or a pound of gold?"

Edited October 29, 2011 by ElTwo

[Guest]

Is he to pay per pound avoirdupois or Troy or a combination thereof?

If per pound avoirdupois then the precious metals weigh in at 108 Troy ounces (12 Troy ounces per Troy pound) (9 x 12). 108 Troy ounces weighs approximately 118.5 avoirdupois ounces, or 7.4 avoirdupois pounds ( 1 Troy ounce = 1.097142857 ounce Avoirdupois). Since the wheat and rice are measured avoirdupois, the total weight is 15 + 10 + 7.4 = 32.4.

If we assume rounding down the price is 64 pesos, rounding up the result is 66 pesos.

My dad used to always ask " which weighs more, a pound of feathers or a pound of gold?"

Shouldn't rounding up be 65? 32.4 * 2= 64.8, therefore, 65???

[Guest]

If you round up, I would think you would round 32.4 up to 33, thus 33 * 2 =66; I guess it just depends where you're doing your rounding. My assumption was that if the Captain was rounding up he would round up the total of the weight.

[Guest]

I feel as though there is supposed to be a trick about the pesos being made out of gold and him having to give gold.

[Molly Mae]

He'll pay nothing. de Goya was paid in materials and not pounds sterling. =P

[Guest]

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