Henry Ernest Dudeney/Puzzles and Curious Problems/142 - Longfellow's Bees
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Puzzles and Curious Problems by Henry Ernest Dudeney: $142$
- Longfellow's Bees
- If one-fifth of a hive of bees flew to the ladambra flower,
- one-third flew to the slandbara,
- three times the difference of these two numbers flew to an arbour,
- and one bee continued to fly about, attracted on each side by the fragrant ketaki and the malati,
- what was the number of bees?
Click here for solution
Historical Note
In the words of Henry Ernest Dudeney:
- When Longfellow was Professor of Modern Languages at College Harvard College he was accustomed to amuse himself by giving more or less simple arithmetical puzzles to the students.
- Here is an example:
and indeed so follows the puzzle posed here.
Sources
- 1932: Henry Ernest Dudeney: Puzzles and Curious Problems ... (previous) ... (next): Arithmetical and Algebraical Problems: Various Arithmetical and Algebraical Problems: $142$. -- Longfellow's Bees
- 1968: Henry Ernest Dudeney: 536 Puzzles & Curious Problems ... (previous) ... (next): Arithmetical and Algebraical Problems: Miscellaneous Puzzles: $214$. Longfellow's Bees