# Problems from Another Time

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

Discussion of 15th century French manuscript, with translation of its problems, including one with negative solutions
Having been given the lengths, a and b, of two straight lines drawn from the acute angles of a right triangle to the middle of the opposite sides, determine the length of those sides.
A mouse is at the top of a poplar tree 60 braccia high, and a cat is on the ground at its foot. The mouse decends 1/2 a braccia a day and at night it turns back 1/6 of a braccia.
I was employed to survey a field, which I was told was an exact geometrical square, but by reason of a river running through it, I can only obtain partial measurements.
A ladder has 100 steps. On the first step sits 1 pigeon; on the second, 2; on the third, 3; and so on up to the hundredth. How many pigeons in all?
Prove geometrically that the hypocycloid is a straight line when the radius of the rolling circle is one-half the radius of the fixed circle.
The third part of a necklace of pearls, broken in a lover's quarrel, fell to the ground...
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.
Given the fraction ax/ (a-x ), convert it into an infinite series.