# Problems from Another Time

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

I am a brazen lion; my spouts are my 2 eyes, my mouth, and the flat of my foot. My right eye fills a jar in 2 days, my left eye in 3, and my foot in 4.
Discussion of 15th century French manuscript, with translation of its problems, including one with negative solutions
There is a number which when divided by 2, or 3, or 4, or 5, or 6 always has a remainder of 1 and is truly divisible by 7. It is sought what is the number?
A woodcutter starts to fell a tree 4 feet in diameter, and cuts half way through. One face of the cut is horizontal, and the other face is inclined to the horizontal at an angle of 45 degrees. Find the volume of the wood cut out.
Given a wooden log of diameter 2 feet 5 inches from which a 7 inch thick board is to be cut, what is the maximum possible width of the board?
The perimeters of two similar triangles are 45 and 135 respectively. One side of the first triangle has length 11″ and a second side, 19″. Find the lengths of the sides of the second triangle.
A man agreed to pay for 13 valuable houses worth $5000 each, what the last would amount to, reckoning 7 cents for the first, 4 times 7 cents for the second, and so on, increasing the price 4 times on each to the last. One says that 10 is divided into three parts and if the small part is multiplied by itself and added to the middle one multiplied by itself the result is the large one multiplied by itself... A father left$20,000 to be divided among his four sons ages 6, 8, 10, and 12 years respectively so that each share placed at 4 1/2 compounded interest should amount to the same value when its possessor becomes the age 21.
Show that the curves x2 - y2 = a2 and 2 xy = b2 cross at right angles.