A farmer has 11 cows. How does he share 1/2, 1/4 and 1/6 between 3 people? thanks.?

Question

My daughters teacher came up with the question for her maths. I haven't got a clue how to work it out , help please!!

Answer 1

Well if you add up those fractions, you get 11/12. This is a trick question.

Borrow a cow from a neighbor farmer so you have 12 cows.

Now give 1/2 (6 cows) to the first person.
Give 1/4 (3 cows) to the second person.
Give 1/6 (2 cows) to the last person.

That's 11 cows given away and then you can return the original cow that you borrowed.

Answer 2

Farmer and cows! Can't miss this one.

Lets denote 100% of cows shared by x.
The three persons got respectively 1/2 x, 1/4 x, and 1/6 x.
Alltogeter their shares must add up to 11 cows:
1/2 x + 1/4 x + 1/6 x = 11
6/12 x + 3/12 x + 2/12 x = 11
11/12 x = 11
x = 12

Answer:
6 cows, 3 cows, 2 cows

Answer 3

Find the lowest common denominator for 1/2, 1/4 and 1/6, which is 12.

So becomes 6/12, 3/12 and 2/12.

So the answer is
1/2 = 6 cows 1/4 = 3 cows and 1/6 = 2 cows.

Answer 4

OK

If you add 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/6 = 6/12 + 3/12 + 2/12 = 11/12

So if you give the (1/2 portion) person 6 cows, and if you have the (1/4 portion) person 3 cows and you give the (1/6 portion person) 2 cows, you will have satisfied your required (pretty close anyway).

6/11 = a little more than 1/2
3/11 = a little more than 1/4
2/11 = a litte more than 1/6

But that is about how close you can get and give them whole cows. Now if you slaughter the cows and start to give portions of the cows for hamburger - we have a whole different problem!

Hope that helps.

Answer 5

I have seen this question for some time now and I think this is a non-sense question made up by people trying to be smart.

It may seem really clever at first when you see people coming up with answer by multiplying each such that they come to their LCM. It happens that the top part of the fraction happens to be 6, 3 and 2 which adds up to 11. So you might think, 'Yeah, this works.'. But no, if you are telling me this is correct then you might better first concvince the world that 1/2 of 11 is 6 and 1/4 of 11 is 3 and ... Just adding it up happens to be 11 does not mean it is in anyway correct.

Don't try to be smarter than smart or you will look foolish.

Answer 6

the person that gets 1/2 would have:
11x1/2 or 11/2 = 5.5 cows

the person that gets 1/4 would have:
11x1/4 or 11/4 = 2.75 cows

the person that gets 1/6 would have:
11x1/6 or 11/6 = 1.83 cows

Are you sure its not 12 cows total? Then it would be:

1/2: 6 cows
1/4: 3 cows
1/6: 2 cows

That would equal to 11 cows given away with 1 left over.

Answer 7

Thats going to be tough since half of 11 is 5.5...
Well I'd 'pretend' add a cow, give 6 (half of 12) to one person, 3 to another (a quarter of 12) and 2 (a sixth of 12) to another which leaves one cow left over the one i added - so we're okay I gave away 11 cows and I had only 11 cows so we're done :D.

Hope this helps!

Answer 8

the ratios are given as

1/2 : 1/4 : 1/6

multiply with 12 ( LCM of 2,4 and 6)

now the ratios become

6 : 3 : 2

so total parts = 6+3+2 = 11

First person share = (11)(6/11) = 6

second person share = (11)(3/11) = 3

third person share = (11)(2/11) = 2

Answer 9

Its non-sense.

If the teacher has a maths degree then the teacher should be ashamed!

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To "solve" the problem you either have to rewrite it into a proper expression of ratios or be inventive and do as some others have done and take the cows to the abatoir!.

There are some nice math puzzles involving distributing an indivisible resource where borrowing an extra "cow" makes the solution clear but this isn't one of them.

Question like this one just confuse and convince students that maths isn't for them . :(

Answer 10

This probably isnt right but here it is....

1/2 = 6/12
1/4 = 3/12
1/6 = 2/12
6+3+2 = 11
Maybe He keeps 1 behind? This sounds stupid doesnt it?