Seventeen Camels and Where They Can Take You

“Oh, it’s just a trick thing.” – Ben Ames Williams, Coconuts Here are six puzzles, some of them classics, that don’t look much alike on the surface. After stating them, I’ll give a hint about what they have in common. Then I’ll present solutions that all make use of the same slick trick in one form or another. Puzzle 1: A wealthy merchant died, leaving seventeen camels to be distributed among three heirs. The merchant’s will stipulated that one half of the camels should go to the eldest heir, one third of the camels should go to the second heir, and one ninth of the camels should go to the youngest heir. The most literal-minded course of action would be to butcher some of the camels, giving eight-and-a-half camels to the eldest heir, five-and-two-thirds camels to the second heir, and one-and-eight-ninths camels to the youngest heir, with the remaining one-eighteenth of a camel left for the vultures. But surely the merchant hadn’t intended such carnage! While they were puzzling over…