# Problems from Another Time

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

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.
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.
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 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.
Show that the curves x2 - y2 = a2 and 2 xy = b2 cross at right angles.
I found a stone but did not weigh it; after I added to it 1/7 of its weight and then 1/11 of this new weight, I weighed the total at 1 mina. What was the weight of the stone?
The highest point of the Andes is about 4 miles above sea level.
A man died leaving 3 sons, to whom he bequeathed his estate in the following manner: to the eldest he gave 184 dollars; to the second 155 dollars and to the third 96 dollars;
In order to encourage his son in the study of arithmetic, a father agrees to pay him 8 pennies for every problem solved correctly and to charge him 5 pennies for each incorrect solution.
I owe a man the following notes: one of $800 due May 16; one of$660 due on July 1; one of $940 due Sept. 29. He wishes to exchange them for two notes of$1200 each and wants one to fall due June 1. When should the other be due?