As I Was Going to St Ives
Encyclopedia
"As I was going to St Ives" is a traditional English language
nursery rhyme
which is generally thought to be a riddle
. It has a Roud Folk Song Index
number of 19772.
(Problem 79), dated to around 1650 BC.
There are a number of places called St Ives
in England
and elsewhere. It is generally thought
that the rhyme refers to St Ives, Cornwall
, when it was a busy fishing port and had many cats to stop the rats and mice destroying the fishing gear, although some people argue it was St Ives, Cambridgeshire
as this is an ancient market town
and therefore an equally plausible destination.
We're up to 9. Now we must consider how many entities accompany just one wife:
There are 7 wives, so we multiply 399 by 7, which equals 2,793. Now we add the narrator, the man, and the man's wives (2,793 + 9), and the grand total is 2,802.
(Problem 79), dated to around 1650 BC.
The papyrus is translated as follows:
The problem appears to be an illustration of an algorithm
for multiplying
numbers. The sequence 7, 7 × 7, 7 × 7 × 7, ..., appears in the right-hand column, and the terms 2,801, 2 × 2,801, 4 × 2,801 appear in the left; the sum on the left is 7 × 2,801 = 19,607, the same as the sum of the terms on the right. Note that the author of the papyrus miscalculated the fourth power of 7; it should be 2,401, not 2,301. However, the sum of the powers (19,607) is correct.
The problem has been paraphrase
d by modern commentators as a story problem involving houses, cats, mice, and grain, although in the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus there is no discussion beyond the bare outline stated above. The hekat was of a cubic cubit
(approximately 4.8 l (10.1 US pt)).
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
nursery rhyme
Nursery rhyme
The term nursery rhyme is used for "traditional" poems for young children in Britain and many other countries, but usage only dates from the 19th century and in North America the older ‘Mother Goose Rhymes’ is still often used.-Lullabies:...
which is generally thought to be a riddle
Riddle
A riddle is a statement or question or phrase having a double or veiled meaning, put forth as a puzzle to be solved. Riddles are of two types: enigmas, which are problems generally expressed in metaphorical or allegorical language that require ingenuity and careful thinking for their solution, and...
. It has a Roud Folk Song Index
Roud Folk Song Index
The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of 300,000 references to over 21,600 songs that have been collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world...
number of 19772.
Lyrics
The most common modern version is:- As I was going to St Ives
- I met a man with seven wives
- Every wife had seven sacks
- Every sack had seven cats
- Every cat had seven kits
- Kits, cats, sacks, wives
- How many were going to St Ives?
Origins
The earliest known published version of it comes from a manuscript dated to around 1730 (but it differs in referring to "nine" rather than "seven" wives). The modern form was first printed around 1825. A similar problem appears in the Rhind Mathematical PapyrusRhind Mathematical Papyrus
The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus , is named after Alexander Henry Rhind, a Scottish antiquarian, who purchased the papyrus in 1858 in Luxor, Egypt; it was apparently found during illegal excavations in or near the Ramesseum. It dates to around 1650 BC...
(Problem 79), dated to around 1650 BC.
There are a number of places called St Ives
St Ives
-Places:*Bingley St Ives or St. Ive's Estate, West Yorkshire in West Yorkshire*St Ives, Cambridgeshire, formerly in Huntingdonshire**St Ives railway station , a former railway station in the town*St Ives, Cornwall...
in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and elsewhere. It is generally thought
that the rhyme refers to St Ives, Cornwall
St Ives, Cornwall
St Ives is a seaside town, civil parish and port in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town lies north of Penzance and west of Camborne on the coast of the Celtic Sea. In former times it was commercially dependent on fishing. The decline in fishing, however, caused a shift in commercial...
, when it was a busy fishing port and had many cats to stop the rats and mice destroying the fishing gear, although some people argue it was St Ives, Cambridgeshire
St Ives, Cambridgeshire
St Ives is a market town in Cambridgeshire, England, around north-west of the city of Cambridge and north of London. It lies within the historic county boundaries of Huntingdonshire.-History:...
as this is an ancient market town
Market town
Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...
and therefore an equally plausible destination.
Answers
All potential answers to this riddle are based on its ambiguity because the riddle only tells us the group has been "met" on the journey to St. Ives and gives no further information about its intentions, only those of the narrator. As such, any one of the following answers is plausible, depending on the intention of the other party:- 1: If the group that the narrator meets is assumed not to be traveling to St. Ives (this is the most common assumption), the answer would be one person going to St. Ives; the narrator.
- 2802: If the narrator met the group as they were also travelling to St. Ives (and were overtaken by the narrator, plausible given the large size of the party), the answer in this case is all are going to St. Ives; see below for the mathematical answer.
- 2800: If the narrator and the group were all travelling to St. Ives, the answer could also be all except the narrator and the man since the question is ambiguous about whether it is asking for the total number of entities travelling or just the number of kits, cats, sacks and wives. This would give an answer of 2,800 — 2 fewer than the mathematical answer below.
- 2: Two is also a plausible answer. This would involve the narrator meeting the man who is assumed to be travelling to St. Ives also, but plays on a grammatical uncertainty, since the riddle states only that the man has seven wives (and so forth), but does not explicitly mention whether the man is actually accompanied by his wives, sacks, cats, and kittens.
- 0: Yet another plausible is zero, once again playing on a grammatical uncertainty. The last line of the riddle states "kits, cats, sacks, wives ... were going to St. Ives?" Although the narrator clearly states he is going to St. Ives, by definition he is not one of the kits, cats, sacks, or wives, and based on the common assumption that the party was not going to St. Ives, the answer is zero.
- 8: If not including the animals; counting only the narrator, the man and his seven wives.
- 2752: The sacks are not a person or animal and therefore can´t be in the multiplication. It was not the number of things, but of "persons" the narrator met. 49 Adult cats 343 Kittens per wife of whom he had seven (7 x 392) = 2744 plus the seven wives 2751 plus the man 2752 persons and animals.
- 9: There are nine people involved, who may be going to St. Ives. The animals are all in the sacks, so they, as well as the sacks themselves, are "being taken", rather than "going".
- 7: There are nine people involved, who are the only ones who may be going to St. Ives, all the others "being taken" there. But since the question is limited to "Kits, cats, sacks, wives", this excludes the man and the narrator, leaving seven.
Mathematical answer
The mathematical answer to the total number of people, sacks, and felines involved is 2,802, calculated as follows:- Narrator: 1
- The man whom he met: 1
- Wives: 7
We're up to 9. Now we must consider how many entities accompany just one wife:
- Sacks: 7
- Adult cats: 49 (7 cats per sack, of which there are 7)
- Kittens: 343 (7 kittens per cat, of which there are 49)
- Total number of entities per wife: 399 (7 + 49 + 343)
There are 7 wives, so we multiply 399 by 7, which equals 2,793. Now we add the narrator, the man, and the man's wives (2,793 + 9), and the grand total is 2,802.
Rhind mathematical papyrus
A similar problem is found in the Rhind Mathematical PapyrusRhind Mathematical Papyrus
The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus , is named after Alexander Henry Rhind, a Scottish antiquarian, who purchased the papyrus in 1858 in Luxor, Egypt; it was apparently found during illegal excavations in or near the Ramesseum. It dates to around 1650 BC...
(Problem 79), dated to around 1650 BC.
The papyrus is translated as follows:
| houses | 7 | |||
| 1 | 2,801 | cats | 49 | |
| 2 | 5,602 | mice | 343 | |
| 4 | 11,204 | spelt | 2,301 Sic Sic—generally inside square brackets, [sic], and occasionally parentheses, —when added just after a quote or reprinted text, indicates the passage appears exactly as in the original source... |
|
| hekat | 16,807 | |||
| Total | 19,607 | Total | 19,607 |
The problem appears to be an illustration of an algorithm
Algorithm
In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm is an effective method expressed as a finite list of well-defined instructions for calculating a function. Algorithms are used for calculation, data processing, and automated reasoning...
for multiplying
Multiplication
Multiplication is the mathematical operation of scaling one number by another. It is one of the four basic operations in elementary arithmetic ....
numbers. The sequence 7, 7 × 7, 7 × 7 × 7, ..., appears in the right-hand column, and the terms 2,801, 2 × 2,801, 4 × 2,801 appear in the left; the sum on the left is 7 × 2,801 = 19,607, the same as the sum of the terms on the right. Note that the author of the papyrus miscalculated the fourth power of 7; it should be 2,401, not 2,301. However, the sum of the powers (19,607) is correct.
The problem has been paraphrase
Paraphrase
Paraphrase is restatement of a text or passages, using other words. The term "paraphrase" derives via the Latin "paraphrasis" from the Greek , meaning "additional manner of expression". The act of paraphrasing is also called "paraphrasis."...
d by modern commentators as a story problem involving houses, cats, mice, and grain, although in the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus there is no discussion beyond the bare outline stated above. The hekat was of a cubic cubit
Cubit
The cubit is a traditional unit of length, based on the length of the forearm. Cubits of various lengths were employed in many parts of the world in Antiquity, in the Middle Ages and into Early Modern Times....
(approximately 4.8 l (10.1 US pt)).
Use in popular culture
- In the 1995 film1995 in film-Top grossing films:-Events:* March 22 - The Dogme 95 movement is officially announced in Paris by Danish directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg.* March 28 - Actress Julia Roberts and singer Lyle Lovett announce their plans for separation....
Die Hard with a Vengeance, the rhyme is presented to the protagonists by the villain as a riddle, giving them thirty seconds to telephone him on the number "555 plus the answer" or a bomb would detonate. After several guesses, they eventually solve the riddle, calling the number 555-0001 which proves to be correct. They missed the 30-second deadline, but the bomb did not explode since the villain had not said "Simon says."
- The rhyme was recited by Mary MurphyMary Murphy (actress)Mary Murphy was an American film actress of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. She was born in Washington, D.C. and spent most of her early childhood in Cleveland, Ohio. Her father, James Victor Murphy, died in 1940. Shortly afterwards, she and her mother moved to Southern California...
's character while caring for a cat with seven kittens in the movie A Man AloneA Man Alone (film)A Man Alone is a 1955 Western directed by and starring Ray Milland. The supporting cast includes Mary Murphy, Ward Bond, Raymond Burr, Lee Van Cleef, and Alan Hale, Jr.. The story involves a man who stumbles into the aftermath of a stagecoach robbery in the desert in which there were no...
. Later the character played by Ray MillandRay MillandRay Milland was a Welsh actor and director. His screen career ran from 1929 to 1985, and he is best remembered for his Academy Award–winning portrayal of an alcoholic writer in The Lost Weekend , a sophisticated leading man opposite a corrupt John Wayne in Reap the Wild Wind , the murder-plotting...
who overheard the rhyme offers her the answer and Murphy's character explains that she alone was going to St. Ives.
- The rhyme was also the basis of a Sesame StreetSesame StreetSesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
Muppet skit from the show's first season, in which the boy Muppet holding a numeral 7 sings the rhyme as a song to the girl Muppet twice (the second time, the girl is busy writing down the calculations) and finally, in keeping true to the spirit of the riddle, reveals the answer as 1 (the traditional answer), because he was going to St. Ives and the kits, cats, sacks and wives were going the other way. Then the girl turns the tables on the boy and asks how many were going the other way. She then reveals the mathematical answer from her calculations: 1 man + 7 wives + 49 sacks + 343 cats + 2,401 kittens, which comes to 2,801. Astonished, the boy responds, "How about that?!"
- The rhyme was also featured in a Pogo comic story, "More Mother Goosery Rinds" in which Albert Alligator himself portrays Mother Goose and Pogo a traveling musician. After going over several Mother Goose rhymes they get to the St. Ives riddle, albeit replacing "seven" with "forty" and while Albert (Mother Goose) keeps trying to cogitate the answer, Pogo boasts he knows it...and he answers "one", which baffles "Mother Goose" (Albert Alligator). Pogo says that if the kits, cats, sacks and wives weren't going to St. Ives, maybe they were going somewhere else, such as Altoona, PennsylvaniaAltoona, Pennsylvania-History:A major railroad town, Altoona was founded by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1849 as the site for a shop complex. Altoona was incorporated as a borough on February 6, 1854, and as a city under legislation approved on April 3, 1867, and February 8, 1868...
. So Albert again recites the riddle, this time ending with "Kits, cats, sacks, wives, how many were going to...ALTOONA??" But by this time, Pogo has already gone upon his way.
- MadMad (magazine)Mad is an American humor magazine founded by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines in 1952. Launched as a comic book before it became a magazine, it was widely imitated and influential, impacting not only satirical media but the entire cultural landscape of the 20th century.The last...
magazine used in one of its articles the following parody:
- As I was going to St Ives
- I met a man with seven wives
- Of course, the seven wives weren't his
- But here in France, that's how it is
- British poet and humorist Colin WestColin West (author)Colin West is an English children's book author and illustrator. Since 1975, he has written and illustrated over 50 children's books.He studied at the Royal College of Art under Quentin Blake.-Select bibliography:...
wrote a satire on "As I was going to St Ives", called "As I Went Down To Milton KeynesMilton KeynesMilton Keynes , sometimes abbreviated MK, is a large town in Buckinghamshire, in the south east of England, about north-west of London. It is the administrative centre of the Borough of Milton Keynes...
". The items listed are "a king with seven queens", and for every queen a prince, for every prince a princess, for every princess an earl, for every earl a lady, for every lady a baby, and for every baby a cat.