Solution: The Perplexing Papyrus

The Perplexing Papyrus Puzzle challenged students to solve the following puzzle from an ancient Egyptian papyrus:

A wealthy Egyptian farmer owned seven barns. Each of the barns housed seven cats. Each of the cats caught seven mice. Each of the mice would have eaten seven sheaves of wheat. Each sheaf of wheat produced seven measures of flour. How many measures of flour did the farmer's cats save?

The answer to this puzzle comes from doing the following calculations. There are a total of 49 cats ( 7 x 7 ) in the seven barns. The 49 cats caught 343 mice (49 x 7 or 7 x 7 x 7). The 343 mice would have eaten 2401 sheaves of wheat (343 x 7 or 7 x 7 x 7 x 7). The 2401 sheaves of wheat produced 16807 measures of flour (2401 x 7 or 7 x 7 x 7 x 7 x 7), which is the answer to this ancient puzzle. ( This is seven to the fifth power.)

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