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Three monkeys found a pile of coconuts and went to sleep. During the night, each monkey woke up hungry, ate one coconut, and took a third of the remaining pile into the forest to eat more before returning to bed. By morning there were only 6 coconuts left, though each monkey claimed they had only taken a couple. Working backwards, it is revealed there were originally 25 coconuts, and each monkey actually took more than they admitted, resulting in an unfair distribution of the remaining coconuts.

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Mharfe Micaroz
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621 views2 pages

Monkeybusiness PDF

Three monkeys found a pile of coconuts and went to sleep. During the night, each monkey woke up hungry, ate one coconut, and took a third of the remaining pile into the forest to eat more before returning to bed. By morning there were only 6 coconuts left, though each monkey claimed they had only taken a couple. Working backwards, it is revealed there were originally 25 coconuts, and each monkey actually took more than they admitted, resulting in an unfair distribution of the remaining coconuts.

Uploaded by

Mharfe Micaroz
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Monkey Business

Three monkeys lived on an island and hunted for


food together. They put all of the coconuts they
found in a large pile and went to sleep.

During the night, the first monkey woke up hungry. He ate one coconut,
then he divided the rest of the coconuts into three equal piles. He pushed
two piles back together, then took the third pile off into the forest to eat
some more before returning to bed.

After a short time, the second monkey woke up hungry and went to the
pile of coconuts. He ate one coconut and then he divided the rest of the
coconuts into three equal piles. He pushed two piles back together, then
took the third pile off to the beach to eat some more before returning to
bed.

Soon, the third monkey woke up, went to the pile of coconuts and ate one
coconut because he was hungry. He divided the rest of the coconuts into
three equal piles. He pushed two of the piles together then took the third
pile back to his favorite tree to eat some more before returning to bed.

In the morning, the three monkeys went to the pile of coconuts and were
surprised to only see 6 coconuts left. “I know there were more than this
yesterday,” said the first monkey. The other two monkeys nodded in
agreement. “I only took a couple last night,” the first monkey said. “I only
took a couple last night,” the second monkey echoed. “Me too!” said the
third monkey.

• How many coconuts were in the pile when the monkeys went to bed?
• How many coconuts did each monkey actually take?
• If they split the remaining coconuts fairly, did each monkey get his fair
share of the coconuts? Explain.

Monkey Business 1 [email protected]


Monkey Business
Solution
1. Make a 2. Make a 3. Work
forward path. backward path. Backward.

Total coconuts Total coconuts 25


-1 +1 25
/3 x3 24
x2 /2 8
-1 +1 16
/3 x3 15
x2 /2 5
-1 +1 10
/3 x3 9
x2 /2 3
6 coconuts left 6 coconuts left 6
ANSWER:
• There were 25 coconuts in the pile when the monkeys went to bed.
• The first monkey took the 1 he ate plus a pile of 8: 9 coconuts
• The second monkey took the 1 he ate plus a pile of 5: 6 coconuts
• The third monkey took the 1 he ate plus a pile of 3: 4 coconuts
• If they split the remaining coconuts fairly, they will each get 2 more so the 1st mon-
key will have gotten 11, the 2nd monkey will have gotten 8 coconuts and the 3rd
monkey will have gotten 6 coconuts. Since they each received different numbers of
coconuts, this is not a fair sharing of the total coconuts.

Monkey Business 2 [email protected]

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