The original "Xiao Meng" in this poem was "Li Bai".
What it means is that Xiao Meng went to buy wine, saw a store, added double the amount of wine to the wine pot for the first time, and appreciated flowers for the first time, so he drank a bucket of wine.
(Explanation: There are many different opinions on how many pounds a dou of wine equals. Li Bai's dou of wine equals four pounds. The point is not the amount of alcohol consumed, but the solution!)
When he met the inn for the second time, he added twice as much wine to the jug and drank another bucket of wine while admiring the flowers for the second time.
When he met the inn for the third time, he added twice as much wine to the jug, and drank another bucket of wine while admiring the flowers for the third time.
May I ask, how much wine was originally in Xiao Meng’s wine jug?
Yu Tang had read this problem in extracurricular books when he was in junior high school. Only by understanding the problem could he solve it using an equation. Compared with the problem Ye Hongxue had just given, this one was a bit more difficult.
Because we need to use fractions to solve this problem! And it's more abstract! Unlike rabbits and chickens, the number of legs is implicit in the question.
The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art states: "Multiply the denominator by the remainder, and the numerator will follow." - This formally gives the concepts of denominator and numerator.
I wonder if these people understand. Judging by their expressions, very few do. I didn't expect Your Majesty's question to be so tricky.
Ye Hongxue was already squatting on the ground, writing in the mud and sand with her fingers and starting to calculate.
Many people were also calculating in their minds. In fact, they also wanted to calculate like Ye Hongxue, but without the emperor's order, they didn't dare to calculate openly. His Majesty was clearly trying to embarrass Ye Hongxue, so they didn't join in the fun.
One person, Zhang Dongzheng, mentally calculated the answer. This problem was actually much easier than the permutation and combination problem Your Majesty had previously asked. The amount of wine in the jug was originally unknown, a number we could call "yuan." With a single calculation, he figured it out.
Meng Fang suddenly winked at Zhang Dongzheng, as if asking if he had figured it out. Zhang Dongzheng nodded with a hint of pride. Then General Meng fell silent.
"Your Majesty, there were originally seven-eighths of wine in Xiao Meng's wine jug?" Ye Hongxue had also calculated it, and patted the dirt in his hands with a proud look on his face.
She had studied arithmetic for several years with the master of the Divine Calculation! This question was not difficult for her!
"Your Majesty, there is a big tree ahead. None of us have a ruler. How can we measure its height?"
Ye Hongxue's beautiful eyes turned and drifted towards the big tree not far away.
This big tree is a camphor tree, with lush branches and leaves. At first glance, it looks to be twenty or thirty meters high.
Without climbing the tree or measuring it with a ruler, how could one know how tall it was? In any case, most of them couldn't figure out a solution.
Therefore, when Ye Hongxue said this, everyone started whispering to each other.
"General Ye is so bold! She has repeatedly made things difficult for Your Majesty, but Your Majesty has never done anything to her!"
"It's rare that His Majesty is so pleased that he didn't bother with her!"
"But the problem she asked is too difficult. How can we figure it out?"
Even Meng Fang was a little worried about His Majesty: "Master Zhang, how do we solve this problem?"
Zhang Dongzheng just smiled and said nothing, but thought in his heart, with Your Majesty's wisdom, Ye Hongxue's question is probably an easy one, right?
On the ring, the contestants were fighting in full swing, but the audience's attention had already been attracted by Baili Tang and others.
Baili Tang didn't say anything, but led everyone to the big tree and said to Meng Fang, "General Meng!"
"I will be here!"
"Take your time to walk across the shadow of the tree and see how many steps you have."
"I obey your command!"
Hearing Baili Tang's words, Ye Hongxue felt uneasy. Could it be that he could even solve a problem like this? Could it be that all the problems were posed by the tyrant emperor, not Zhang Dongzheng?
This is absolutely impossible!
With so many capable people around the tyrant, it is not surprising that they taught him this measurement method early on.
While Meng was counting steps, Baili Tang was estimating the angle between the treetop and the top of the tree's shade. The tree and the ground formed a right angle. Knowing one side and two angles of a triangle, one could use cosines and sines, along with the Pythagorean theorem, to calculate the lengths of the three sides. Now he needed to calculate the tree's height.
Ancient people had already used this method to measure mountains, but many people were uneducated and disliked arithmetic, so they knew very little about it.
Fortunately, Yu Tang had received nine years of compulsory education, so he could quickly figure out the answer without relying on the database in his head, even if the answer had a large error.
"Your Majesty, there are thirty-eight steps in total!"
Meng Fang had just said thirty-eight steps when Baili Tang gave Ye Hongxue an answer within a few breaths: "The tree is between twenty-eight and thirty steps high!"
Ye Hongxue nodded with a bright smile. She was always serious, but when she smiled, she had an indescribable charm. All the men present, including Baili Tang, were attracted by her smile.
What a pity! If it weren't for the hideous scar on her neck... she would definitely be a rare beauty. "Your Majesty, you are truly a rare talent. Hong Xue admires you wholeheartedly..."
Just when this woman was about to stir up trouble again, Baili Tang had no choice but to make another move: "General Ye, you seem to be very free? Are all the matches of your Ye Family Army today over?"
"Yes!" Ye Hongxue nodded. "Forget it, I'll let you come up with the questions!" Ye Hongxue's attitude towards Baili Tang was similar to Chao Man'er's. The difference was that Ye Hongxue would show some respect on the surface...
For some reason, Baili Tang seemed to have a voice in his heart telling him to stay away from this woman. Otherwise, he would suffer!
"In that case, I would like to trouble General Ye and your two thousand Ye family soldiers to find two identical leaves on this tree for me."
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