Earlier era · Open Edition
The Puzzle of Olum's Fraction
$38.00
Why this price? →Size
Style
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The Puzzle of Olum's Fraction: A5 to A3, true relative scale
All 3 sizes, true relative scale.
What it's made of
Archival paperHahnemühle 310gsm, acid-free cotton rag.
Giclée inkFade-resistant 100+ years indoors.
Open EditionPrinted to order, unsigned.
Drawn firstEvery line starts on paper.
The Story
In 1665, Francis Olum posed a problem to the Academy of Mathematics & Logic that became known as Olum's Fraction: which is more, two-thirds or one-half? Using words, explain why. Sir Ernest Jeffrey Jenson's celebrated 1815 answer — an extraordinary procedure involving primes, percentages and pie — was long thought unbeatable. Then, in 1995, Charles Robinson shocked the academic world. Imagine three cans, he said. If you had half, how many cans would you have? One and a half. If two-thirds? Two.