Question 1080847
i believe he may have done something like the following.


he added up the fractions as follows:


he determined the value of x that would make the fractions come out whole in the following manner.


1/2 * x + 1/3 * + 1/9 * x = 17


factor out the x and you get x * (1/2 + 1/3 + 1/9) = 17


place all the fractions under a common denominator to get:


x * (9/18 + 6/18 + 2/18) = 17


combine like terms to get x * 17/18 = 17


multiply both sides of this equation by 18/17 to get:


x = 17 * 18/17


solve for x to get x = 18.


he used x as the common denominator.


the widow gets 1/2 of 18 = 9


the elder son gets 1/3 of 18 = 6


the younger son gets 1/9 of 18 = 2


9 + 6 + 2 = 17


everybody gets a whole horse.


he could also have rounded the answers to the nearest whole number and would have gotten the same numbers.


17/2 = 8.5 = 9


17/3 = 5.7 = 6


17/9 = 1.9 = 2


9 + 6 + 2 = 17