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He-hee!

In that case, why count SO far...

"a one" would've been OK?

a one, a two, a one two three four

Ate?

More seriously, one thousand?

101?

Good one, Simon!

Maybe Restio; but the way JvR thinks, anything's possible

simonb6, restio you are not bad thinkers either! Both of you are right. If you were taught the American way of counting 1000 is the right answer. If you count the ol' British way 101 is it! Either way, this is an amazing bit of hippotrivia!

And, by-the-way, gwendolen, luv'd the dancing fruit.

"...a-one, a-two, a-one, two, three!" Got me up-and-boogying!

As this limerick concerns my favorite animal it surely has to feature under this thread.

Consider the poor hippopotamus:
his life is unduly monotonous.
He lives half asleep
at the edge of the deep,
and his face is as big as his bottom is.

Many years ago, there was a terrible drought in Kruger. Almost all the rivers ceased to flow and hippo pools were at a premium. This drought followed on a decade of good rains and Hägar and his pod had prospered. Now their pool was the only one that still had decent submersion possibilities and the neighbouring hippos had moved in – until there were135 hippos in the pool! Hägar worked out that there was enough food within reach from the pool for the 135 hippos to last four weeks. Nine days later an additional 36 hippos arrived in the already crowded pool. They had to share the food supply. According to Hubertha the expected start of rainy season was still two weeks away. Hägar now worked out that he hippos had to limit themselves to three-quarters of the original feeding ration.

So, how many days would the food supply now last for?

Assuming that the hippos grazing would rapidly be repaired one week after the start of the rains, and that Hubertha’s “weather prediction” was spot-on, were Hägar’s calculations adequate?

Anyone?

At the start, 135 hippos x 28 days = 3780 "hippo-days" of food
In the first 8 days, 135 x 8 = 1080 "hippo-days" of food eaten, leaving 2700 "hippo-days".

The addition of 36 hippos on day 9 takes us to 171 hippos; 2700 "hippo-days" of food will last them 15 and a bit days on full rations.

On 75% rations, this will stretch to 21 days (and 75 minutes).

If the rain starts in 14 days, and it takes a further 7 days for the grazing to repair itself, normal grazing will be restored in 21 days - so Hägar’s calculations were spot on (with 75 minutes to spare)

simonb6, you saved the day on this one! I was getting desperately worried - to the point that I was just about to send private messages to you, Matthew, acecam and restio...

Great abacus work, simonb6

Abacus?

Fingers and thumbs only (although I did have to take my shoes and socks off and use my toes as well at one point in my deliberations)

High time for a brain teaser again!

Once, a long-long time ago when dragons still roamed the earth, there was a hippopotamus family living in the land of Makebelieve in a pool in a winding river. For the hippopotamuses to get to their feeding grounds they had to cross seven bridges. One day Papa hippopotamus found that each bridge was guarded by a hippopotamusaurus – a fierce dragon that ate hippopotamuses and they insisted on being paid a toll fee in baby hippopotamuses before allowing the family to cross! If the Baby hippopotamuses did not get out of the pool every night to go to the feeding grounds they would starve to death! Papa hippopotamus called a meeting with all the hippopotamusauruses and negotiated that he will give each hippopotamusaurus half of the Baby hippopotamuses with him, providing that they in turn each give back one baby hippopotamus. They agreed and the hippopotamus family continued to travel their feeding route without loosing a single family member. What was Papa hippopotamus’s plan?