Question 14.38

8. The 37th pearl. Three friends have bought a bag guaranteed to contain 36 high-quality pearls for $14,900 at an auction. Abe contributed $5900, Beth’s contribution was $7600, and Charles supplied the remaining $1400. After taking the bag to your house, they pour the 36 pearls from the bag onto the kitchen table.

  1. How many should each friend get if the Hamilton method is used to apportion the pearls according to the size of the contributions?
  2. Charles has noticed that the bag isn’t empty! Another pearl comes out, so recalculate the apportionment.
  3. image How do you explain the result to Charles?