At a school, a short time back, the pupils were given, as a home
lesson, the task of subtracting from 880,788,889 the number 629 so
often till nothing remained.
The boys worked on for hours without any perceptible diminution of
the figures, and at length gave up the task in despair. Some of the
parents then tried their hands, with no better success. For, in order
to work out the sum, the number 629 would have to be subtracted
1,400,300 times, leaving 189 as a remainder.
Working 12 hours a day, at the rate of 3 subtractions per minute, it
would take over 1 year and 9 months to complete the sum which had
been set the poor lads for their home lesson.