Leftover Lambs Division

It was a busy spring morning. Seventeen woolly lambs were bouncing around the yard, and Little Thunder had to put them into pens.

"There are five pens," said Spike. "The farmer wants the same number in each one."

Little Thunder counted on his hooves. "Seventeen shared between five... that's tricky."

"Let's share them out one round at a time," said Suzy.

They guided one lamb into each pen. Five lambs gone, twelve left. Another round. Ten lambs in pens, seven left. Another round. Fifteen in pens.

"Two lambs left," said Spike. "But there are five pens. We can't put one more in every pen."

"So each pen gets three," said Suzy, "with two left over. That's seventeen divided by five equals three, remainder two."

The two leftover lambs looked up hopefully. One of them nibbled Little Thunder's ear tag.

"What do we do with them?" he asked.

"That depends on the question," said Spike. "If the farmer asks how many full pens of three, the answer is five. We round down and ignore the leftovers."

"But if every lamb needs a pen," said Suzy, "we need a sixth pen for the last two. So we round up."

Little Thunder looked at the little pair. "And if the question is how many lambs are left over?"

"Then we keep the remainder," said Spike. "Two."

Just then, Nairobi the cow came by with a bucket. "I'll take the leftovers," she said kindly. "They can help me in the garden."

"So the answer is three in each pen," said Little Thunder, "and two gardeners."

The two lambs bounced off after Nairobi, very pleased with their new job.