Alice and the March Hare had a Christmas lunch. Alice had baked 5 pies, the March Hare 3.
“It’s tea time,” the March Hare said. “So let’s eat the pies.”. The Mad Hatter popped in.
“It’s lunch time, not tea time,” Alice said. “But we can eat the pies.”
Each pie was cut into 3 parts, with one part eaten by each of the three.
“It was the best butter, you know” the March Hare said. “And there’s nothing better than the best butter, you can’t deny that.”
Alice looked surprised at him, as she didn’t understand why he made that remark.
“Well, I think they all are delicious”
At the end, the Mad Hatter thanked them, paid 8 pounds and left.
“Now that’s 5 pound for you and 3 for me,” the March Hare said.
But Alice doubted this was fair. Was Alice right?
I found this problem at https://plus.maths.org/content/sharing-cakes. Reportedly, a version of it was written by Ali ibn Abi Talib in the seventh century AD. Another version appears in Fibonacci’s famous Liber Abaci.
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