Mr. Jones, the math teacher, was told by his wife Molly to go to farmer Elmer Sudd\u2019s grocery store to buy some eggs as she wanted to bake a cake for their son Seymour\u2019s birthday.<\/p>\n
Mr. Jones puttered out of the house in his loafers and headed for Elmer Sudd\u2019s store by the farm.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Sudd, do you have some eggs for sale,\u201d inquired Mr. Jones politely, adjusting his thick-lensed glasses on his bulky nose.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Jones, you flunked my son Homer in math. That\u2019s why he didn\u2019t graduate from high school this year,\u201d growled farmer Sudd, fixing Mr. Jones with beady eyes.<\/p>\n
Mr. Jones shuffled uncomfortably in front of the shop counter and began polishing his glasses with great concentration, checking the level of polish against the ceiling light every now and then.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, well\u2026 that was very unfortunate,\u201d stammered Mr. Jones, \u201cbut your son Homer got all the problems wrong on the final exam, and spilled ink on my shirt \u2013 so I had no choice,\u201d he apologized.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut, please, do you have any eggs for sale?\u201d repeated Mr. Jones. \u201cMy wife will be very angry if I show up without any eggs for the cake which she is baking for my son Seymour\u2019s birthday,\u201d appealed Mr. Jones.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs that so, Mr. Jones. I do have some eggs and you can have them if you can solve a problem I read in Reader\u2019s Digest<\/em> that should be simple for a math teacher,\u201d said farmer Sudd with malicious grin.<\/p>\n \u201cVery well, what\u2019s this problem?\u201d inquired Mr. Jones timidly.<\/p>\n \u201cThe product of the eight divisors of the number of eggs I have is 331776,\u201d said farmer Sudd with a smile twisted halfway to his ear.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you can tell me how many dozen eggs I have, I will sell them to you for a premium price, Mr. Jones, so you can make your wife happy.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Jones stopped polishing his glasses, pulled out a Casio calculator and tapped the keys ten times, after which he announced the correct dozen of eggs to farmer Sudd.<\/p>\n \u201cHmmm\u2026 Homer, get ready, I\u2019m sending you to summer school to learn math,\u201d announced farmer Sudd to Homer skulking in a corner.<\/p>\n Can you work out how many dozen eggs farmer Sudd had?<\/em><\/p>\nShare this:<\/h3>