THE GROCER AND DRAPER.
(
Money Puzzles)
A country "grocer and draper" had two rival assistants, who prided
themselves on their rapidity in serving customers. The young man on the
grocery side could weigh up two one-pound parcels of sugar per minute,
while the drapery assistant could cut three one-yard lengths of cloth in
the same time. Their employer, one slack day, set them a race, giving
the grocer a barrel of sugar and telling him to weigh up forty-eight
one-pound parcels of sugar While the draper divided a roll of
forty-eight yards of cloth into yard pieces. The two men were
interrupted together by customers for nine minutes, but the draper was
disturbed seventeen times as long as the grocer. What was the result of
the race?
Answer:
The grocer was delayed half a minute and the draper eight minutes and a
half (seventeen times as long as the grocer), making together nine
minutes. Now, the grocer took twenty-four minutes to weigh out the
sugar, and, with the half-minute delay, spent 24 min. 30 sec. over the
task; but the draper had only to make _forty-seven_ cuts to divide the
roll of cloth, containing forty-eight yards, into yard pieces! This took
him 15 min. 40 sec., and when we add the eight minutes and a half delay
we get 24 min. 10 sec., from which it is clear that the draper won the
race by twenty seconds. The majority of solvers make forty-eight cuts to
divide the roll into forty-eight pieces!
