One reason I love these old word problems is that they raise so many other questions than what "it is required to find." For example...
A labourer engaged to serve for 40 days upon these conditions, that for every day he worked he was to receive 20 d. but for every day he played, or was absent, he was to forfeit 8 d. now at the end of the time he had to receive 1 l. 11 s. 8 d. it is required to find how many days he worked, and how many he was idle.
Was this labor arrangement something that actually happened, or is it an abstraction of a more subtle agreement? This is not the only time I have seen a problem like this one in an old book; it seems to have been a stock question in 19th century algebra books.
If this is the "First American Edition" then why does it still use British monetary units and spelling? Was the publisher just lazy?
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