You guys should quit picking on us farmers, when it comes to math. We’re rather good at it. To illustrate the point, let me tell you a tale my Grandpa told.
Back in the early 1900’s, everyone’s child was in a rush to head off to the city and get “educated” proper. It turns out, Grandpa’s neighbor’s children all went off and headed to college. While the oldest was getting his PHD, and the youngest was just starting, their father passed away. All three children rushed home for the funeral and reading of the will.
In the will, their father divided up his herd of horses in the following manner. The first born was supposed to get one half of the herd, the second child was supposed to get one third, while the youngest boy should’ve gotten one ninth.
Now, since their father had seventeen horses, they had no idea of what to do. No mater how they proposed settling the issue, they just couldn’t make the numbers work to everyone’s satisfaction. Luckily, my grandfather stopped by around that time to offer his condolences on their loss. When presented with their quandary, he gave them his horse as a bereavement give.
With eighteen horses now, the oldest got nine, the second child got six, and the third child got two. Taking the one that was left over as payment for services rendered, Grandfather left later that evening on the same horse he rode in on...
Who says farmers don’t know math? ;D
But what about that other family that had 17 donkeys, and only 2 kids? I heard the grandpa lost his ass in that deal. Too bad, he should have just told each to take 8 live ones, and sawed the one remaining down the middle. Oops, I forgot, farmers don't like half-assed solutions. :D
@Jack: I know. I used to have a repeating number output method in my code, but I took it out when I discovered calculators that don't support that these days. A lot will report 2 / 3 as: .6666666666666667
