Then, if New York has fifty per cent. more, it must have one hundred and
fifty people as its population; that is correct, is it not, father?"
Mr. Ribsam took another puff or two, as if to make sure that his boy was
not leading him into a trap, and then he solemnly nodded his head.
"Dot ish so,--dot am,--yaw."
"Then if Philadelphia has one hundred people for its population, New
York has one hundred and fifty?"
"Yaw, and Pheelatelphy has feefty per cent. less--yaw, yaw, yaw!"
"Hold on, father,--not so fast. I'm teacher just now, and you mustn't
run ahead of me. If you will notice in this problem the per cent. in the
first part is based on Philadelphia's population, while in the second
part it is based on the population of New York, and since the
population of the two cities is different, the per cent. cannot be the
same."
"How dot is?" asked Mr. Ribsam, showing eager interest in the reasoning
of the boy.
"We have agreed, to begin with, that the population of Philadelphia is
one hundred and of New York one hundred and fifty. Now, how many people
will have to be subtracted from New York's population to make it the
same as Philadelphia?"
"Feefty,--vot I says."
"And fifty is what part of one hundred and fifty,--that is, what part of
the population of New York?"
"It vos one thirds."
"And one third of anything is thirty-three and one third per cent. of
it, which is the correct answer to the problem.
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