Simpler Problems

And he said, A certain man had two sons:

12 And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living.

13 And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.

14 And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.

15 And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.

16 And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.

17 And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!

18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee,

19 And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.

20 And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.

21 And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.

22 But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet:

23 And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry:

24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.

25 Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard musick and dancing.

26 And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant.

27 And he said unto him, Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound.

28 And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and intreated him.

29 And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends:

30 But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.

31 And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.

32 It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.

Luke 15:11-32

All of that was included to simply say this. Can you pick out the important parts of the problem? If not, I'll tell you briefly of it here.

One nobleman had two sons. It's quite impossible that one man should have that much stuff, but nevertheless he did. Whether this nobleman was wise or not is another question entirely. It's possible that he had more heart than reason. Regardless, he had a lot of money in addition to having other possessions. Because none of them knew how to account for it all, these were simply wasted. Well, maybe they weren't exactly wasted. Yet nothing good ever came from them either. The riches that is not the family. Anyhow, the man had what's called an inheritance. This is what he gave between the two sons. I'm sure he divided it evenly or in order of favorites or whatever. Who knows. But if I was a nobleman, I would do it by favorites and by birth order. Therefore, the older son would get 2/3 of the stuff or 3/4 of it, whichever you prefer. These are roughly the same amount however, because they both are not 1/2 or 2/4 of the stuff. I said before we were dividing the stuff by favorites and birth order among two sons. If you count everything up, it makes four parts to count each son separately. If I count both sons as an expense called sons, it would be 2/3. Let's look at it like this.

(birth order & favorites)/sons

The older son would get 2/3 and the younger son would get 1/3

or

(birth order & favorites)/(older son | younger son)

Older son would get 3/4 and younger son would get ¼

Alright, that bit of business is well out of the way. Let's say though the man was righteous and did not care about the birth order or the favorites. Then it would be

stuff/sons

1/2

Obviously, they both can't have it all. Therefore, I will divide the stuff evenly in two.

stuff/older son

1/2

and

stuff/younger son

1/2

The older son takes some flocks and herds and money and younger son you also take some flocks and herds and money. Same division, isn't it? Just a different arrangement. Alright. The stuff has been divided but now we've got bigger problems. The younger son would like to leave the older son and his father. Can you tell me how many are in this family? That's right, three. One son leaves making it now equal two. Good job. Clearly, he is going to leave the flocks and herds with the older brother though while he leaves. Therefore, the older brother's share is going to be calculated in just a moment.

The younger brother had

(flocks, herds, money)/stuff

3/1 or I could also say 3/3 couldn't I? Try looking at it like this.

(flocks, herds, money)/(flocks, herds, money)

Already you're looking like a genius.

The younger brother wants to only keep the

money/stuff

1/3

Which makes it, can you guess?

The older brother will have

2/3 + 3/3 makes 5/3 - which is wrong and I'll explain why in a minute.

2x flocks (twice the) 2x herds (twice the) and 1/2 money (half the)

Which makes the breakdown come out to be roughly the whole inheritance spent on flocks and herds while the money has been 1/2 or halved. It makes more sense to say that the older brother now has 2 1/2 of everything. Had we stuck with the earlier arrangement, it would have been only 2 2/3 of everything. Alright now, with one son gone he has no idea how to manage the money right. This means he quickly spent it all with scarcely a care or a whim on what. Then the older brother who still has no idea of his is back at home tending the flocks and herds. It's really double the work isn't it without a little brother there to help. Which is why, when the younger brother returned, the family became what - three again. Anyway, the older brother was so mad when they killed one (1) fatted calf. I know, it's not really funny so please, try hard not to laugh.