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Leon Tolstoy, as well as being one of the most famous novelists of all time, was an educationist, who founded a school for peasant children in his country estate, and wrote several textbooks for their use, one of which dealt with arithmetic.

I haven't been able to find the original text of Tolstoy's arithmetic book, but one problem that has become quite famous and appeared in a number of places is reproduced in Yakov Perelman's book Algebra Can be Fun. Here is the wording of the problem as it appears there.

A team of haymakers were assigned the task of scything two meadows, one twice the size of the other. Half a day the team worked on the larger meadow. Then it split into two equal groups: the first remained in the larger meadow and finished it by evening; the second group scythed the smaller meadow, but by evening there still remained a portion to do; this portion was scythed the next day by one haymaker in a single day’s work. How many men were there in the team?

Scroll down to see a solution

Solution: There are doubtless many ways to solve the puzzle but this was my take on it.

Suppose there are people in the team. Then in the first half-day they will put in person-days of work. After the team splits, the people remaining in the first field will work for half a day, so putting in a further person-days, for a total of person-days to mow the first meadow.

Over in the second field the people diverted there will work for half a day, making man-days, and on the second day the lone mower will contribute a further person day, for a total of .

But we know the first is twice the size of the second so

, , which implies and that is the answer.