(related to Problem: The Grocer and Draper)
The grocer was delayed half a minute and the draper eight minutes and a half (seventeen times as long as the grocer), making together nine minutes. Now, the grocer took twenty-four minutes to weigh out the sugar, and, with the half-minute delay, spent $24$ min. $30$ sec. over the task; but the draper had only to make forty-seven cuts to divide the roll of cloth, containing forty-eight yards, into yard pieces! This took him $15$ min. $40$ sec., and when we add the eight minutes and a half delay we get $24$ min. $10$ sec., from which it is clear that the draper won the race by twenty seconds. The majority of solvers make forty-eight cuts to divide the roll into forty-eight pieces!
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