Problems from Another Time

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

A mouse is at the top of a poplar tree 60 braccia high, and a cat is on the ground at its foot. The mouse descends 1/2 a braccia a day and at night it turns back 1/6 of a braccia.

Investing in Apples and Pears

A merchant woman buys and sells apples and pears. How much did she invest in apples; how much in pears?

Conic Contents

Determine the greatest cylinder that can be inscribed in a given cone.

Feeling Sluggish

A leech invited a slug for a lunch a leuca away.

A Perfect Cone Sugarloaf

Three persons bought a sugar loaf in the form of a perfect cone 25 inches high and agreed to divide it...what was the slant height of each one's share?

A Snake in the Hole

A powerful, unvanquished, excellent black snake, 32 hastas in length, enters into a hole at the rate of 7 1/2 angulas in 5/14 of a day, and in the course of 1/4 of a day its tail grows 2 3/4 of an angula.

Logarithms: The Early History of a Familiar Function - Joost Bürgi 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.

Three Numbers in France

I wish to find three numbers of such nature that the first and the second with 1/2 of the third makes 20...

Surveying a Field

I was employed to survey a field, which I was told was an exact geometrical square, but by reason of a river running through it, I can only obtain partial measurements.

Wooden Be Board

Given a wooden log of diameter 2 ch'ih 5 ts'un from which a 7 ts'un thick board is to be cut, what is the maximum possible width of the board?