# Problems from Another Time

Individual problems from throughout mathematics history, as well as articles that include problem sets for students.

I was employed to survey a field, which I was told was an exact geometrical square, but by reason of a river running through it, I can only obtain partial measurements.
One military horse cannot pull a load of 40 dan; neither can 2 ordinary horses, nor can three inferior horses.
A ladder has 100 steps. On the first step sits 1 pigeon; on the second, 2; on the third, 3; and so on up to the hundredth. How many pigeons in all?
Three men have a pile of money, their shares being 1/2, 1/3 and 1/6. Each man takes some money from the pile until nothing is left.
A teacher agreed to teach 9 months for $562.50 and his board. At the end of the term, on account of two months absence caused by sickness, he received only$409.50. What was his board worth per month?
A person has a circular yard that is 150 ft. in diameter, and wishes a walk of equal width made round it within the fence...
Find the isoceles triangle of smallest area that circumscribes a circle of radius 1.
The authors recount the 'great tale' of Napier's and Burgi's parallel development of logarithms and urge you to use it in class.
In a right triangle, the hypotenuse is 9.434 and the sum of the sides around the right angle is 13. Find the lengths of the sides around the right angle.
In Archimedes' Book of Lemmas (ca 250), he introduces a figure that, due to its shape, has historically been known as "the shoemaker's knife" or arbelos.