# Problems from Another Time

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

In a square box that contains 1000 marbles, how many will it take to reach across the bottom of the box in a straight row?
A farmer sold a team of horses for $440, but did not receive his pay for them until 1 yr, 8 mo after the sale. He had at the same time another offer of$410 for them. Did he gain or lose by the sale and by how much, money being worth 6%/yr?
The authors recount the 'great tale' of Napier's and Burgi's parallel development of logarithms and urge you to use it in class.
There is a lion in a well whose depth is 50 palms. He climbs and slips back a certain amount each day. In how many days will he get out of the well?
In how many ways can a vowel and a consonant be chosen out of the word "logarithms?"
How a translation of Peano's counterexample to the 'theorem' that a zero Wronskian implies linear dependence can help your differential equations students
A father wills his estate valued at \$40, 000 to his three children. Before the settlement one of the children dies. What should the other two receive?
Given the frustum of a circular cone with height h.
Of the two water reeds, the one grows 3 feet and the other 1 foot on the first day. The growth of the first becomes every day half of that of the preceding day, while the other grows twice as much as on the day before.
Discussion of 15th century French manuscript, with translation of its problems, including one with negative solutions