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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