# Problems from Another Time

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

A powerful, unvanquished, excellent black snake, 80 angulas in length, enters into a hole at the rate of 7 1/2 angulas in 5/14 of a day, and in the course of a day its tail grows 11/4 of an angula.
An official asks a woman why she has so many bowls to wash. The woman explains that she had dinner guests who ate meat, rice, and soup. Judging by the number of bowls, how many guests were there?
A series of circles have their centers on an equilateral hyperbola and pass through its center. Show that their envelope is a lemniscate.
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?
Two bicyclists travel in opposite directions around a quarter-mile track and meet every 22 seconds. When they travel in the same direction on this track, the faster passes the slower once every 3 minutes and 40 seconds. Find the rate of each rider
Having been given the perimeter and perpendicular of a right angled triangle, it is required to find the 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. 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.
A water tub holds 73 gallons; the pipe which fills it usually admits 7 gallons in 5 minutes; and the tap discharges 20 gallons in 17 minutes.
Given four numbers whose sum is 9900; the second exceeds the first by 1/7 of the first...