Ganita badge logoGanita

Episode 2 · Stories from Ganita House

The Mango Box

DivisionRemainders

Appa brings home 25 mangoes for six people. Chitra deals them out fairly, and even the one left over gets shared.

Open on YouTube

Read the story

The same story, told as a comic. Read it together, slowly.

Appa coming home with a crate of mangoes1
One hot afternoon, Appa came home from the market with a crate full of mangoes.
AppaMangoes for the whole house! Sweet, ripe mangoes!
MihirMangoes! How many, Appa? How many?
ChitraFirst the people, Mihir. Then the mangoes.
Chitra thinking carefully before she counts2
Chitra did not guess. First, she counted the people who would share them.
ChitraAmma. Appa. Ajji. Tata. Mihir. And me. Six people.
ChitraSix fours are twenty-four. Four each, I think. And maybe one left over.
MihirMaybe? Deal them, Chitra! Deal them!
Mangoes being dealt into piles on the table3
So Chitra dealt the mangoes the fair way. One to each person, round after round.
ChitraOne for Amma. One for Appa. One for Ajji. One for Tata. One for Mihir. One for me. Six!
ChitraRound two! Twelve! Round three! Eighteen! Round four! Twenty-four!
Six piles of four mangoes, and one mango left in the crate4
Four rounds done. Now, everyone look in the crate.
ChitraEveryone has four. And the crate has exactly one.
MihirOne left! I am the smallest. It should be mine!
AjjiFair is fair, kanda. What is shared is shared by all.
Ajji squeezing the last mango into six little glasses5
So Ajji squeezed the last mango, and its juice went round to everyone.
MihirRemainder juice tastes best!
ChitraFour each is twenty-four. And one over makes twenty-five. Nothing lost.
ChitraProven.

Try the math

Deal a round, the fair way

Round 0 of 4 · 25 in the crate

Amma

0 mangoes

Appa

0 mangoes

Ajji

0 mangoes

Tata

0 mangoes

Mihir

0 mangoes

Chitra

0 mangoes

Your Turn

Tomorrow, Appa brings 30 mangoes for the same six people. How many does each person get? Is any mango left over?

Off-screen activity

At home: deal out 25 grapes or buttons among your family, like Chitra. How many each? What is left over?

Chitra

For parents

Today's idea was division as fair sharing. Twenty-five shared by six is four each, and one left over.

Ask at dinner: when something cannot be shared equally, what is the fairest thing to do with the piece left over?