Problems from Another Time

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

A gentleman has a garden of rectangular form and wants to construct a walk of equal width half way round to take up half the garden. What must be the width of this walk?
Discussion of 15th century French manuscript, with translation of its problems, including one with negative solutions
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?
Find the isoceles triangle of smallest area that circumscribes a circle of radius 1.
Two cog-wheels, one having 26 cogs, and the other 20 cogs, run together. In how many revolutions of the larger wheel will the smaller gain in 12 revolutions?
A certain merchant increases the value of his estate by 1/3...
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.
Four men already having denari found a purse of denari; each man has a different amount of denari before they found the purse. Find out how much denari each man has.
Find the greatest value of y in the equation a4 x2= (x2 + y2)3.
A square walled city of unknown dimensions has four gates, one at the center of each side.