On the fifth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.
"My true love" sent all those things just on the fifth day of Christmas. If what most people assume was correct, it would instead say something like this:my true love sent to me
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.
On the fifth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Five golden rings, in addition to the
Four calling birds sent to me on the fourth day of Christmas,
Three French hens sent to me on the third day of Christmas,
Two turtle doves sent to me on the second day of Christmas,
And the partridge in a pear tree sent to me on the first day of Christmas
my true love sent to me
Five golden rings, in addition to the
Four calling birds sent to me on the fourth day of Christmas,
Three French hens sent to me on the third day of Christmas,
Two turtle doves sent to me on the second day of Christmas,
And the partridge in a pear tree sent to me on the first day of Christmas
But it doesn't. So instead we are left with the following gifts from said "true love":
1 x 12 = 12 Partridges in (a) pear tree(s)And you thought 8 maids a-milkin' sounded like a lot! We now have a total of 364 gifts, nearly one for each day of the year. Of those, there are 184 birds and 84 of 'em are either a-swimmin' or a-layin' (even more birds!). I don't know about you, but I think I'd rather just get a digital camera or something.
Note: it is unclear whether each partridge got it's own pear tree or not
2 x 11 = 22 turtle doves
3 x 10 = 30 french hens
4 x 9 = 36 calling birds
5 x 8 = 40 golden rings
6 x 7 = 42 geese a-layin'
7 x 6 = 42 swans a-swimmin'
8 x 5 = 40 maids a-milkin'
9 x 4 = 36 ladies dancing
10 x 3 = 30 lords a-leapin'
11 x 2 = 22 pipers piping
12 x 1 = 12 drummers drumming
5 comments:
Hahaha...I was waiting for you to say something about this. :)
Yeah, figured I'd wait for it to actually be the Christmas season before posting it.
Good call. I've never really cared to do the math of just how many rings were given and I'm glad you did it for me!
Oh my, I started formulating the integral to determine just how many gifts are received in the twelve day period. It's something like the integral from 0 to 11 of (x+1)(12-x)dx. Of course, that's continuous, and it really should be discrete, so it would be the sum from 0 to 11 of (n+1)(12-n). Or it could be done recursively...
Haha, very nice Kevin. Now can you formulate the price range of what all this might be too, or should I ask an accountant or purchasing manager? :-)
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