Page 176 - Math Smart - 7

A father left 17 camels to his three
Fract ons sons In his will.

When he passed away, the sons
opened up the will.

You will learn about:
The will stated that the eldest son
In this would get 2 of the cameis,the middle
( unit Finding equivalent fractions son would get 3 of the camels, and
Using fractions to describe parts of a whole
the youngest son would get § of the
Simplifying fractions
camels.
Converting between Improper fractions
As it was not possible to divide 17 in
and mixed numbers
half, or by three, or by nine, the sons
Expressing remainders In fractions
started fighting with one another.
Comparing and ordering fractions
How will the sons divide the camels?
Adding and subtracting fractions
Finding fractions of a quantity

5
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.The sons visited a wise woman in the neighbouring village to try and settle their dispute. The woman "
agreed that it was.a difficult problem and that'she would reflect on if and advise them the next day.
The riext morning, the woman told the sons she could not solve the problem, but would give them her
own camel, in the hope that It would resolve their problem and end the feud.
The sons were puzzled, but pleased to have an additional camel, and began to walk home. On the
long walk home, they calculated how a herd of 18 camels could be divided. Half (or nine camels) would
go to the eldest son, the middle would get a third (six camels), and after the youngest son received his
ninth (two camels), there was still one camel left over which they could return to the wise woman.

Can you work out how this trick works?
Think about the solution. We will come back to this at the end of Chapter 8.6.

Fractions
I