A very amusing Paradox

[Shrek3]

A wealthy man owned a stable of 'seventeen' horses. When he died he bequeathed the horses to his three sons. The will stated that eldest son was to be given one half of the horses, the middle son was to be given one third of the horses, and the youngest son was to be given one ninth of the horses. The sons were distraught. It was clear to all that the horses could not divided in this way without making a bloody mess.

Question: How can they divide the horses as per old man's will? Give it a thought before looking at the answer!. You will be just amazed with the solution.

 

[Mirc]

Add one horse, and at the end you'll have one left.

Shouldn't have included the link so I could've been a legitimate smartass here.

 

[Gigaz]

The only problem is, that the solution is incorrect. In the end, the oldest son will have 53% of the horses (instead of 50%), the middle son has 35,3% (instead of 33,3%) and the youngest has 11,7% of the horses (instead of 11,1%)
The father must have died of alzheimer anyway, because 1/2+1/3+1/9 is 8/9 and not 1.

 

[Fr8monkey]

The puzzle is technicly not logicly possible to answer because 1/2, 1/3, and 1/9 are not perfect divisors of 17.

 

[eastsidebagel]

It's mathematically impossible to solve this riddle like Gigaz said.

 

[Veritass]

1/2 + 1/3 + 1/9 = 9/18 + 6/18 + 2/18 = 17/18.

That's why you add the horse to make it eighteen, divvy up the horses, and take back the one you added.

fwiw, I have this same puzzle in a book of ancient Sufi stories, so it's been around a long time.

 

[Onionsoilder]

Adding another horse to the mix does not solve the problem. The problem asks how to divide seventeen horses, not eighteen horses.

 

[Cutlass]

Sell them all and divide the money.

 

[Zulu Impi]

Adding another horse to the mix does not solve the problem. The problem asks how to divide seventeen horses, not eighteen horses.

You add one then take it away still having 17 so you don't need the extra horse.

 

[Yoda Power]

Sell them all and divide the money.

And then use the money to buy new horses.

 

[mechaerik]

I find several of the responses funnier than the paradox.

 

[Harbringer]

You add one then take it away still having 17 so you don't need the extra horse.

No that's ********, he was rite. If we go by those rules then I say, chop up the horses and bring in some scientists from the future to animate the limp pieces, see, by this stupid ass answers logic I could totally do that.

 

[dwaxe]

Our math teacher told us this riddle in middle school, I solved it then. Although I didn't think of adding one. I simply knew that the answers were the fractions of 18 instead of 17, and ergo a larger percentage of 17.

No one laughed, btw. Half the class knew the answer by the time I decided to speak up.

 

[Onionsoilder]

You add one then take it away still having 17 so you don't need the extra horse.

That doesn't matter. The father's will specified that his eldest son get half(50%) of his horses. Instead, he got around 53% of his horses. That's going against the father's will, and thus, wrong.

 

[Abaddon]

I'd breed them until a suitable number, then divide.

 

[Sharwood]

Shoot 'em all and let God sort it out.

 

[Truronian]

Shouldn't the sons be distraught about their father dying rather than the will being impossible to fulfill without the help of a glue factory?

 

[Veritass]

Shouldn't the sons be distraught about their father dying rather than the will being impossible to fulfill without the help of a glue factory?

No, he had suffered long enough, and it was a blessing to finally see him go.

Besides, he was always torturing his sons with impossible requests like how to split up these darn horses, and it was only getting worse as he got older. Some of these requests seemed completely ridiculous, so they were kind of relieved when he died. The last straw was that his will also stated that he should be buried face-down so the whole world can bend over and kiss his a**.

 

[warpus]

Yeah, that's a stupid "paradox" that could have been a clever riddle if it was worded better.

 

[mechaerik]

I think there are 3 possibilities:
1) One of the horees is preganent.
2) THe guy was going to get more horses.
3) The father wanted his sons to have a massive feast.