Entry: 孫子算經的『How Many Guests』?

   I know that everyone had half of a dish of rice, a third of a dish of broth, and a quarter of a dish of meat. I first want to see how many people I need for this to be possible. I will add together these dishes with pictures until it makes sense. If I start with 1 person I will have:

   Now I know that this is only possible with groups of 12 people. If I have less than 12 people, there will be leftover food. If I have 12 people, I can count and see that there would be 6 bowls of rice, 4 bowls of brother, and 3 bowls of meat. This is 13 bowls. We do not have enough food, so I will need to invite 12 more people and prepare 13 more bowls of food, bringing us to 26. If I repeat this 3 more times, I will have 65 bowls of food and 60 people to eat them.

   I don't feel that cultural context has much impact on this type of question, unless it was taught to a culture that was not familiar with sharing food (in which case they might not understand). Whether the items being shared were rice, soup, french fries, etc. typically would not change how the students would approach the question. However, I feel that this type of question is a great way to make foreign students feel included and relevant in the classroom and I would encourage using word problems that are influenced by global cultures (using ethnic names, foods, animals, etc.).