Problems from Another Time

Individual problems from throughout mathematics history, as well as articles that include problem sets for students.

I am a brazen lion; my spouts are my 2 eyes, my mouth, and the flat of my foot. My right eye fills a jar in 2 days, my left eye in 3, and my foot in 4.

Logarithms: The Early History of a Familiar Function - John Napier Introduces Logarithms

The authors recount the 'great tale' of Napier's and Burgi's parallel development of logarithms and urge you to use it in class.

Indian Numbers Game

Find a number having remainder 29 when divided by 30 and remainder 3 when divided by 4.

The Chinese General and the River

An old Chinese general led his army to a river with a steep bank. Standing atop the bank, he held a stick 6 feet long perpendicular to himself.

Stone Weight

I found a stone but did not weigh it; after I added to it 1/7 of its weight and then 1/11 of this new weight, I weighed the total at 1 mana. What was the weight of the stone?

Peano on Wronskians: A Translation - References

How a translation of Peano's counterexample to the 'theorem' that a zero Wronskian implies linear dependence can help your differential equations students

A Basket Case

Rabbits and pheasants are put in a basket.

Sum of a Series

What is the sum of the following series, carried to infinity: 11, 11/7, 11/49, etc.?

Inheritance Problem

A father left $20,000 to be divided among his four sons aged 6, 8, 10, and 12 years respectively, so that each share placed at 4 1/2 percent compounded interest should amount to the same value when its possessor becomes the age 21.

'He Advanced Him 200 Lambs of Gold': The Pamiers Manuscript - About the Author / Acknowledgments

Discussion of 15th century French manuscript, with translation of its problems, including one with negative solutions