How do you measure your memories of a person. I would think that a memory given to you by a particular person that has lasted more than 44 years makes that person memorable.
I was probably about 10 when I first met Uncle Eddie. At that first meeting he told me this "joke".
A man is feeding pigeons and squirrels in the part. He counts 84 legs and 24 heads. If a squirrel has 4 legs and a pigeon has 2 legs, how many of each are there.
For all these years I forgot the line about the heads. Without that piece of information the problem forms a single equation with infinitely many solutions. It is a line and the solution lies anywhere and everywhere along that line.
Thinking about the problem again this morning, I suddenly remembered that vital piee of information. The solution is as follows...
x = pigeons with 2 legs each
y = squirrels with 4 legs each
There are 84 legs -> 2x + 4y = 84
There are 24 heads -> x + y = 24
Solving the two equations simultaneously
2x + 4y = 84 -> 2x + 4y = 84 -> 2y = 36 -> y = 18
x + y = 24 -> -2x - 2y = -48
x + y = 24 -> x + 18 = 24 -> x = 6
There are 18 squirrels and 6 pigeons.
Thank you Uncle Eddie for this lifetime of fun. This problem will be used for a long time in my math tutoring.
It seems an odd thing about release of the spirit... within days of Nana's release, I began crocheting as if I had been doing it all my life. Before then I could not get the hang of it. I have always said that I "inherited" that ability from her. The same has happened again... coincidence?????
