17 horses couldn't drag me away!

[Fusion_power]

So this rich man has 17 horses and 3 sons. In his will he leaves instructions that the 3 sons can't inherit a thin dime until they figure out how to divide up the horses according to his instructions. The instructions are:

Oldest son to have 1/2 of the horses.
Middle son to have 1/3 of the horses
Youngest son to have 1/9 of the horses.

Under no conditions are any of the horses to be killed, maimed, or otherwise traumatized, they are valuable animals.

How do they do it?

Fusion

[Uncwilly]

Ooh, I figured it out!!!!


The eldest son gets 9, which is 53% of the horses, meeting the 1/2 requirement.
The second son gets 6, which is 35% of the horses, meeting the 1/3 requirement.
The last son gets 2, which is 11.8% of the horses, meeting the 1/9 requirement.

9+6+2=17

[cheesehead]

Or (for the traditionalists):

After noting that 1/2 + 1/3 + 1/9 = 17/18, the sons conclude that their dear departed father had a "short" in his calculator.

So they persuade an onlooking llama to agree to be a "honorary supplemental horse" and temporarily join the 17 real horses, in return for an undisclosed remuneration. Then the sons distribute real horses in amounts of 1/2 of 18, 1/3 of 18, and 1/9 of 18, respectively, while respectfully leaving the "honorary supplemental horse" (who has all this while been trying his best to appear un-horselike, having forgotten that he's the only one of the 18 wearing a foam hat shaped like a wedge of Swiss cheese anyway) undistributed. The llama relinquishes his temporary title, breathes a sigh of relief, collects his remuneration, and retires to his accustomed halls of academe, vowing to be more careful in his future choices of spectating venue.

[Orgasmic Troll]

the oldest son gets 9 horses
the middle son gets 6 horses
the youngest son gets 2 horses and the first horse that is born from the older siblings' horses