Readers will recognize the diagram as a familiar friend of their youth.
A man possessed a square-shaped estate. He bequeathed to his widow the
quarter of it that is shaded off. The remainder was to be divided
equitably amongst his four sons, so that each should receive land of
exactly the same area and exactly similar in shape. We are shown how
this was done. But the remainder of the story is not so generally known.
In the centre of the estate was a well, indicated by the dark spot, and
Benjamin, Charles, and David complained that the division was not
"equitable," since Alfred had access to this well, while they could not
reach it without trespassing on somebody else's land. The puzzle is to
show how the estate is to be apportioned so that each son shall have
land of the same shape and area, and each have access to the well
without going off his own land.
[Illustration]