St. Ives Problem/Historical Note
Historical Note on St. Ives Problem
The similarities between the St. Ives Problem and the version found in the Rhind Papyrus are too close to be coincidental.
Leonardo Fibonacci's version in his Liber Abaci of $1202$ and $1228$ is also close.
Charles Sanders Peirce suggested a link between this problem and the nursery rhyme This Is the House that Jack Built, and went on to note that Fibonacci uses the same numbers as Ahmes and performs the calculation in the same way.
It may of course be suggested that the St. Ives Problem and the Rhind papyrus problem are in fact the same problem, having been passed down virtually unchanged for over $36$ centuries.
Hence it may be considered one of the oldest mathematical problems ever.
Note that David Wells, who reports on this problem in more than one publication, does not commit himself one way or another as to whether there is a direct intellectual link or not.
It is not completely certain that the St. Ives in question is St. Ives, Cambridgeshire, as opposed to the better-known St. Ives, Cornwall.
However, the former is the more likely location, as it is a popular market town whose Great Fair may have been the venue for the travellers who thus met.
Sources
- 1951: Carolyn Eisele: The Liber Abaci through the Eyes of Charles S. Peirce (Scripta Math. Vol. 17: pp. 236 – 259)
- 1972: Richard J. Gillings: Mathematics in the Time of the Pharaohs
- 1986: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Numbers ... (previous) ... (next): $7$
- 1992: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Puzzles ... (previous) ... (next): The World's Oldest Puzzle: $2$
- 1997: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Numbers (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): $7$
- although he cites Charles Sanders Peirce as Pierce.