A woodworker near here passed away recently.
When he died, he had 17 boards of Brazilian Rosewood.
In his will, he had left 1/2 of those boards to his oldest son, 1/3 to
his middle son, and 1/9 to his youngest son.
The family discussed/argued/fought over how to best split up the lumber.
To no avail. No matter how hard they tried, they could not make the
fractions work into the number 17, and nobody wanted to cut those boards.
The village idiot made a suggestion that worked.
He suggested he'd lend them one of his boards which would make the total
18.
The oldest son got 9 boards
The middle son got 6 boards
and the youngest got 2 boards.
9+6+2=17, and the Village idiot took his board back and walked off
whistling and thinking who the idiots really were.
--------------------------
CAVEAT!!!! This was meant to be a cute little thing to share with your
loved ones, NOT intended to be the fuel for a mathematical flame-war.
I'd say he intended the remainder to cover the inheritance tax but we all
know 1/18th wouldn't be enough :-)
"Josh" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> To whom did the woodworker leave the remaining 1/18? That's the guy
> who got screwed.
>
> Josh
>
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"Robatoy" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>A woodworker near here passed away recently.
> When he died, he had 17 boards of Brazilian Rosewood.
>
> In his will, he had left 1/2 of those boards to his oldest son, 1/3 to
> his middle son, and 1/9 to his youngest son.
> The family discussed/argued/fought over how to best split up the lumber.
> To no avail. No matter how hard they tried, they could not make the
> fractions work into the number 17, and nobody wanted to cut those boards.
>
> The village idiot made a suggestion that worked.
> He suggested he'd lend them one of his boards which would make the total
> 18.
> The oldest son got 9 boards
> The middle son got 6 boards
> and the youngest got 2 boards.
>
> 9+6+2=17, and the Village idiot took his board back and walked off
> whistling and thinking who the idiots really were.
>
>
> --------------------------
> CAVEAT!!!! This was meant to be a cute little thing to share with your
> loved ones, NOT intended to be the fuel for a mathematical flame-war.
Converting the fractions to decimal you get,
17 x .5 =8.5
17 x .333 = 5.6
17 x .111 = 1.88
8.5+5.6+1.88=16 in round numbers.
I wonder who the old man wanted the last board given to! Pretty simple to
see that if you round the numbers up you end up with 17 boards, but that is
not what the will stated!
Greg
"Robatoy" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>A woodworker near here passed away recently.
> When he died, he had 17 boards of Brazilian Rosewood.
>
> In his will, he had left 1/2 of those boards to his oldest son, 1/3 to
> his middle son, and 1/9 to his youngest son.
> The family discussed/argued/fought over how to best split up the lumber.
> To no avail. No matter how hard they tried, they could not make the
> fractions work into the number 17, and nobody wanted to cut those boards.
>
> The village idiot made a suggestion that worked.
> He suggested he'd lend them one of his boards which would make the total
> 18.
> The oldest son got 9 boards
> The middle son got 6 boards
> and the youngest got 2 boards.
>
> 9+6+2=17, and the Village idiot took his board back and walked off
> whistling and thinking who the idiots really were.
They all should be happy. The each got more than their allotted share.
On Sun, 05 Feb 2006 14:52:40 -0600, George Shouse <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>I'm not sure what the point of the story was. Dad can't add?
>17/18 is close enough to 1 for a wood worker?
hey, we're talking about a group of folks who say 12/4 instead of 3"s...
what do you expect from poor dad?
mac
Please remove splinters before emailing
On Sun, 05 Feb 2006 14:52:40 -0600, George Shouse <[email protected]>
wrote:
>I'm not sure what the point of the story was. Dad can't add?
>17/18 is close enough to 1 for a wood worker?
Not for the wannabe machinists who use micrometers to set their saw.
"Robatoy" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> A woodworker near here passed away recently.
> When he died, he had 17 boards of Brazilian Rosewood.
>
> In his will, he had left 1/2 of those boards to his oldest son, 1/3 to
> his middle son, and 1/9 to his youngest son.
> The family discussed/argued/fought over how to best split up the lumber.
> To no avail. No matter how hard they tried, they could not make the
> fractions work into the number 17, and nobody wanted to cut those boards.
>
> The village idiot made a suggestion that worked.
> He suggested he'd lend them one of his boards which would make the total
> 18.
> The oldest son got 9 boards
> The middle son got 6 boards
> and the youngest got 2 boards.
>
> 9+6+2=17, and the Village idiot took his board back and walked off
> whistling and thinking who the idiots really were.
>
That's the difference between a woodworker and a machinist. For a
woodworker, it all came out "close enough". A machinist would have labored
over the precision.
--
-Mike-
[email protected]
In article <[email protected]>,
George Shouse <[email protected]> wrote:
> I'm not sure what the point of the story was. Dad can't add?
> 17/18 is close enough to 1 for a wood worker?
*sound of buzzer*
Nope.. that's not it.
In article <[email protected]>,
"Leon" <[email protected]> wrote:
> "Robatoy" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> >A woodworker near here passed away recently.
> > When he died, he had 17 boards of Brazilian Rosewood.
> >
> > In his will, he had left 1/2 of those boards to his oldest son, 1/3 to
> > his middle son, and 1/9 to his youngest son.
> > The family discussed/argued/fought over how to best split up the lumber.
> > To no avail. No matter how hard they tried, they could not make the
> > fractions work into the number 17, and nobody wanted to cut those boards.
> >
> > The village idiot made a suggestion that worked.
> > He suggested he'd lend them one of his boards which would make the total
> > 18.
> > The oldest son got 9 boards
> > The middle son got 6 boards
> > and the youngest got 2 boards.
> >
> > 9+6+2=17, and the Village idiot took his board back and walked off
> > whistling and thinking who the idiots really were.
>
> They all should be happy. The each got more than their allotted share.
That's why we luvs Leon. *G*
"Robatoy" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>A woodworker near here passed away recently.
> When he died, he had 17 boards of Brazilian Rosewood.
>
> In his will, he had left 1/2 of those boards to his oldest son, 1/3 to
> his middle son, and 1/9 to his youngest son.
> The family discussed/argued/fought over how to best split up the lumber.
> To no avail. No matter how hard they tried, they could not make the
> fractions work into the number 17, and nobody wanted to cut those boards.
>
> The village idiot made a suggestion that worked.
> He suggested he'd lend them one of his boards which would make the total
> 18.
> The oldest son got 9 boards
> The middle son got 6 boards
> and the youngest got 2 boards.
>
> 9+6+2=17, and the Village idiot took his board back and walked off
> whistling and thinking who the idiots really were.
>
>
Reminds me of the old one about the 3 men an the hotel bellman. Remember
that one?
Gary
On Sun, 5 Feb 2006 12:27:15 -0600, "Greg O"
<[email protected]> wrote:
>"Robatoy" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>news:[email protected]...
>>A woodworker near here passed away recently.
>> When he died, he had 17 boards of Brazilian Rosewood.
>>
>> In his will, he had left 1/2 of those boards to his oldest son, 1/3 to
>> his middle son, and 1/9 to his youngest son.
>> The family discussed/argued/fought over how to best split up the lumber.
>> To no avail. No matter how hard they tried, they could not make the
>> fractions work into the number 17, and nobody wanted to cut those boards.
>>
>> The village idiot made a suggestion that worked.
>> He suggested he'd lend them one of his boards which would make the total
>> 18.
>> The oldest son got 9 boards
>> The middle son got 6 boards
>> and the youngest got 2 boards.
>>
>> 9+6+2=17, and the Village idiot took his board back and walked off
>> whistling and thinking who the idiots really were.
>>
>>
>> --------------------------
>> CAVEAT!!!! This was meant to be a cute little thing to share with your
>> loved ones, NOT intended to be the fuel for a mathematical flame-war.
>
>
>
>Converting the fractions to decimal you get,
>17 x .5 =8.5
>17 x .333 = 5.6
>17 x .111 = 1.88
>
>8.5+5.6+1.88=16 in round numbers.
>I wonder who the old man wanted the last board given to! Pretty simple to
>see that if you round the numbers up you end up with 17 boards, but that is
>not what the will stated!
I'm not sure what the point of the story was. Dad can't add?
17/18 is close enough to 1 for a wood worker?
On Sun, 05 Feb 2006 14:52:40 -0600, George Shouse <[email protected]>
wrote:
>>"Robatoy" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>>news:[email protected]...
>>>A woodworker near here passed away recently.
>>> When he died, he had 17 boards of Brazilian Rosewood.
>>>
>>> In his will, he had left 1/2 of those boards to his oldest son, 1/3 to
>>> his middle son, and 1/9 to his youngest son.
>>> The family discussed/argued/fought over how to best split up the lumber.
>>> To no avail. No matter how hard they tried, they could not make the
>>> fractions work into the number 17, and nobody wanted to cut those boards.
>I'm not sure what the point of the story was. Dad can't add?
>17/18 is close enough to 1 for a wood worker?
What did the youngest son do to get so screwed?
Where did he find 17 identically sized pieces of rosewood? Don't tell
me he bought them s4s!
And since he knew none of his kids appreciated his woodworking
(remember, nobody wanted to cut the wood) he'd be a smart ass about
it. Clearly he was a regular wreck poster.
-Leuf